COVID-19: Indonesia sees highest daily rise in cases

JAKARTA

Indonesia on Thursday confirmed 1,624 new cases of the novel coronavirus, the biggest daily rise so far, taking the tally to 59,394.

"As many as 1,072 patients have recovered in the last 24 hours. So far, we have recorded 26,667 recoveries," said Achmad Yurianto, the government spokesman for COVID-19, during a news conference.

Meanwhile, the number of new deaths rose by 53, bringing the death toll to 2,937.

The confirmed cases of COVID-19 increased to 12,695 in East Java, 11,823 in Jakarta, 3,344 in West Java and 1,640 in Bali.

The capital city of Jakarta has extended the social distancing policy for another 14 days until July 16.

“All activities will continue to be conducted with 50% of capacity,” said Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan on Wednesday.

In total, 849,155 samples from 503,132 people across the country have been tested.

After originating in China last December, the virus has spread to at least 188 countries and regions. Europe and the US are currently the worst-hit regions.

The pandemic has killed more than 517,600 people worldwide, with over 10.76 million confirmed cases, while recoveries have surpassed 5.52 million, according to figures compiled by the US' Johns Hopkins University.