With 1,864 confirmed cases, Jayapura, the capital of Papua Province, was viewed as the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, spokesman of the Papua Provincial Government's COVID-19 Task Force Silwaus Sumule stated in Jayapura on Tuesday evening.
Jayapura, Mimika, Keerom, and Biak Numfor are the four other districts, with a high count of COVID-19 cases, he noted, adding that 1,495 symptomatic residents had made a complete recovery and were discharged from hospitals.
In the wake of the high rate of infection, local authorities have yet to enforce a transitional period for adapting to the new normal scenario in Jayapura City, but if the COVID-19 curve can be flattened, it can be imposed in September, he explained.
Coronavirus infections initially surfaced in the Chinese city of Wuhan at the end of 2019.
COVID-19 has thereafter spread to over 215 countries and territories, including 34 provinces of Indonesia, with a huge rise in death toll.
Papua has been making persistent, all-out efforts to flatten the coronavirus curve.
As of August 4, Indonesia had registered 1,922 new confirmed cases, thereby bringing the tally to 115,056, while the total number of people recovering from COVID-19 had reached 72,050, with 1,813 new recoveries.
The death toll has reached 5,388, with 86 people additionally succumbing to COVID-19, the Indonesian Task Force for COVID-19 response stated.
A total of 22,902 specimens from 13,456 people were examined at 320 laboratories across Indonesia on Tuesday, thereby bringing the total count of specimens subject to laboratory examination to 1,575,043 from 907,987 people so far.
East Java emerged as the province with the highest number of confirmed cases reaching 430; followed by 410 cases in Jakarta; 119 cases in South Kalimantan; 117 cases in South Sulawesi; and 94 cases in West Java.
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Translator: Evarukdijati, Rahmad Nasution
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
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