The face masks were symbolically handed over by the SOE Ministry's secretary, Susyanto, to his counterpart from the Home Ministry, Hamdani, on Wednesday, the SOE Ministry's spokesperson, Rudi Rusli, said.
The mask-wearing campaign is part of the SOE Ministry foundation's efforts to support the nation's collective efforts to break the chain of COVID-19 transmission in communities, he said in a statement issued here on Wednesday.
The Home Ministry plans to distribute the one million masks to people residing in red zones across Indonesia from next week with the help of members of the ministry's Family Welfare Movement (PKK).
The Indonesian government's COVID-19 Task Force reported 8,700 new coronavirus infections on Tuesday, which took the country's total case count to 1,174,779.
By mid-day on Tuesday, at least 1,937 new COVID-19 patients were hospitalized, bringing the number of those being treated at hospitals to 169,351, the task force stated.
Meanwhile, 10,424 patients recovered from COVID-19, bringing the total recoveries to 973,452, while 213 people succumbed to the virus, bringing the death toll to 31,976.
The task force further revealed that most of the new cases were contributed by Jakarta, which recorded 3,437 new infections, while Central Java contributed 948 cases.
Other provinces that reported hundreds of new cases included West Java (775), East Kalimantan (550), and Bali (453). Meanwhile, Maluku recorded less than 10 new confirmed cases as of mid-day on Tuesday.
Jakarta also accounted for the most deaths with 50 people in the capital city succumbing to the virus.
Central Java recorded the second highest number of deaths at 48, followed by West Java (17), East Kalimantan (9), and Bali (7).
The task force also disclosed that 77,086 people in 510 districts/cities across the country remain categorized as suspected patients.
At least 67,888 new specimens were tested on Tuesday, bringing the total number of specimens examined to 9,791,928, the task force informed.
The government has been striving to reduce the country's COVID-19 infection rate.
In this regard, the Health Ministry is collaborating with the National Police and the Indonesian Defence Forces (TNI) to carry out vaccinations and contact tracing at the grassroots level. (INE)
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Translator: Aji C, Rahmad Nasution
Editor: Suharto
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