The 951 new cases were the result of swab tests also called polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests conducted on Friday and reported on Saturday.
The PCR tests were conducted on 15,120 specimens. Of the total, 12,181 have taken PCR tests to diagnose new cases, with 951 of them testing positive and 11,230 others testing negative for the novel coronavirus.
The addition of 951 cases on Saturday is the lowest daily COVID-19 case count in the past week compared to 1,232 on Friday (Dec 11), 1,180 on Thursday (Dec 10), 1,237 on Wednesday (Dec 9), 1,174 on Tuesday (Dec 8), 1,466 on Monday (Dec 7), 1,331 on Sunday (Dec 6) and 1,360 on Saturday (Dec 5).
The addition of 951 cases was also smaller than that of 1,440 on Saturday (Sept 12) and 1,579 on Saturday (Nov 21), which was the highest single day account since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Indonesia has registered 611,631 COVID-19 infections, 501,376 recoveries, and 18,653 deaths since the government announced the first two cases on March 2, 2020, according to the Task Force for COVID-19 Handling.
The country added 4,490 recoveries, 6,388 fresh cases, and 142 deaths in the 24 hours ending Saturday, it said.
West Java reported the highest number of new infections at 1,283, followed by Central Java (992), Jakarta (951), East Java (769), Yogyakarta (227), and South Sulawesi (226).
The task force also recorded 62,224 suspected COVID-19 cases. Meanwhile, the number of specimens examined by laboratories per day reached 59,388. This indicates Indonesia's laboratory testing capacity is expanding, it said.
Cumulatively, the highest number of confirmed cases were reported by Jakarta (151,201), followed by East Java (69,130), Central Java (65,600), and West Java (65,355).
However, the highest cumulative number of recoveries were seen in Jakarta (136,406), followed by East Java (59,800), West Java (53,642), and Central Java (43,983).
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Translator: Livia K and Ricky P/Suharto
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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