Indonesia scales up COVID-19 detection as cases spike again

JAKARTA: Indonesia has scaled up detection on COVID-19 infections in the country as the number of cases leaped again in the last several days.

The daily testing has been boosted to 12,276, exceeding the government's target of 10,000 per day, the government's spokesman for the COVID-19 Related Matters Achmad Yurianto said on Tuesday.

So far, the Health Ministry has totally tested 202,936 specimens, the spokesman added.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo has ordered to ramp up the testing in a bid to take early strides once conditions of infected persons are detected.

For the purpose, Indonesia has recruited more manpower and increased the number of testing facilities, according to Chief of the COVID-19 Task Force Doni Monardo.

Since days ago, the number of daily cases has jumped again to the level of 400 to 500 from the previous level of 200 to 300, according to data from the ministry.

On Tuesday, the ministry announced 486 new confirmed cases, bringing the total to 18,496 with 1,221 fatalities in the country.