Indonesia Virus Cases Rise By Record, 2 Weeks After Holiday
Indonesia Virus Cases Rise By Record, 2 Weeks After Holiday
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Indonesia added the highest number of new coronavirus cases since the outbreak began, two weeks after a five-day weekend.
The country confirmed 5,444 new cases in the 24 hours through midday Friday, beating out the previous record in October to bring the total to 457,735, according to the health ministry. Some 104 people died from the disease over the same period, with the total at 15,037.
President Joko Widodo had called on his officials to ensure the public holiday period from Oct. 28 to 30 wouldn’t lead to a spike in virus cases as many Indonesians traveled domestically. The country is grappling with Southeast Asia’s largest outbreak, with the impact of the pandemic pushing the economy into its first technical recession since the Asian financial crisis.
The Central Java province accounted for 1,362 of the cases reported on Friday, followed by the capital Jakarta, which remains the epicenter of the outbreak in Indonesia, with 1,033.
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