COVID-19: Indonesia’s death toll surpasses 1,000 in 24 hours

Indonesia on July 7 recorded 1,040 COVID-19-related deaths in the past 24 hours, double the number just two days ago, the country's latest data show. This is the largest number of fatalities recorded in a day since the pandemic hit the Southeast Asian nation in March 2020.

A citizen has vaccine administrated by a health worker

It registered 34,379 new cases on the day, also a daily record.

As of July 7, the country reported a total of 2,379,397 infections and 62,908 deaths, while 343,101patients were under treatment or self-quarantine. The number of new infections in Indonesia has skyrocketed in recent times due to the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant. The rapidly increasing number of cases is causing overloads in some hospitals on Indonesia's most populous Java island.

Amid the complicated development of COVID-19, Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto said the country has imposed strict prevention measures in 43 cities and districts in Java island and Bali. With the new restriction measures, the government is planning to add more hospital beds and apply travel restrictions in cities and districts, from the island of Sumatra in the west to the province of Papua in the east.

According to Hartarto, if medical facilities in these areas are overloaded by the influx of new patients, new emergency measures will be applied like in the two islands of Java and Bali./.

VNA