Indonesia has registered 45,416 new infections of Covid-19 disease. The number of infections has crossed Brazil, India and the US, according to the Worldometer data. An official report stated that Brazil, India and the US has registered 38,091, 39,742 and 37,245 fresh cases respectively. However, in terms of the total number of infections and deaths, Indonesia is still far behind the top countries with 3,166,505 cases and 83,279 fatalities.
Indonesia has become the new epicentre of the Covid-19 pandemic. Indonesia’s confirmed Covid-19 cases have jumped back to around 40,000 a day after declining from over 56,000 on July 15. Its death toll has also remained at near-record highs.
Yesterday, Indonesia President Joko Widodo loosened Covid-19 curbs for another week until August 2 even as coronavirus disease cases remained high following near month-long restrictions. Widodo’s orders came despite experts warnings that loosening restrictions could bring about another wave of the pandemic in the country.
According to the new orders, traditional markets selling staple foods will open as normal and shops selling non-food items and other small merchants have been allowed to operate at half capacity with shorter hours. Food stalls and restaurants can resume dine-ins in outdoor areas but under very strict protocols.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation has requested Indonesian countrymen to impose tighter Covid-19 curbs and experts have said that lifting restrictions will result in more cases and deaths in the country.
“Restrictions must be in place for a minimum of four weeks and (the government) needs to increase testing, tracing and treatment to have maximum results,” Dicky Budiman, an Indonesia epidemiologist at Australia’s Griffith University, told AFP before Sunday’s announcement. “Otherwise, it’s just the same as having no restrictions,” he said.
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