Indonesia's COVID-19 cases cross five million amid Omicron surge

JAKARTA: Indonesia has now recorded over five million COVID-19 cases since March 2020, as the number of cases increased significantly over the past few weeks driven by Omicron variant.

The world's fourth-most populous country reported another 63,956 cases on Thursday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 5,030,002.

Indonesia's health ministry confirmed a further 206 deaths in the last 24 hours, pushing the total deaths to 145,822, as a third wave of the pandemic takes hold across the country.

President Joko Widodo urged all parties to work hard to fully vaccinate 208.2 million people in the country in order to achieve herd immunity.

Speaking in a videoconference with regional heads and security officials from 12 provinces at the Bogor Presidential Palace today, he said vaccination is a key part to control the pandemic and called for the acceleration of vaccination to the elderly and children.

So far, over 189.06 million people have received their first dose and over 138.28 million have taken the second dose of vaccine.

-- BERNAMA