JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesia set a new record of daily COVID-19 infections with 40,427 cases on Monday as the Southeast Asia country is continuing to receive international aids amid devastating wave of coronavirus.
Monday’s figures bring the total number of infections nationwide to more than 2,5 million, including 67,355 deaths, since the pandemic began. It was the first time daily COVID-19 cases surpassed 40,000 mark.
Given the rapid spread of the highly infectious delta variant, Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, the government minister in charge of Indonesia’s pandemic response, warned that Indonesia could face a worst-case scenario with 50,000 cases a day, “maybe even 60,000 to 70,000 per day at worst.” The next two weeks will be critical, he said.
Hospitals are swamped, with growing numbers of the ill dying in isolation at home or while waiting to receive emergency care. This situation has drawn sympathy of the international community, with countries were coming to a gasping Indonesia’s aid with medical supplies, equipment and COVID-19 vaccines.
Indonesia received a shipment of nearly 1 million AstraZeneca vaccines doses from Japan early this month, while more than 1,000 oxygen cylinders, concentrators, ventilators and other health devices arrived from Singapore last Friday, followed by another 1,000 ventilators from Australia.
About 3 million Moderna vaccine doses have arrived in Indonesia on Sunday and Japan pledged to send another 1 million vaccines doses later this week. The U.K., China, Netherlands, the United Arab Emirates and even India, also have offered help, the foreign minister Retno Marsudi said Sunday.