Jakarta. The seven-day average of newly coronavirus cases in Indonesia saw a new high on Tuesday, only a day after the total number of cases hit half a million since the outbreak began.

The country has been averaging 4,550 cases in the past week, just five more cases from the previous record of weekly average set a day earlier.

Indonesia has recorded 4,192 cases in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 506,302 nationwide.

An additional 109 Covid-19 patients have died in the 24-hour period to take the total death toll to 16,111 or 3.2 percent of the overall cases.

The total number of cases stands at 64,878 across all 34 provinces.

Central Java Overtakes West Java
Jakarta remains the hardest hit by the virus with a total of 129,188 cases, 1,015 more from the previous day. Newly cases in the capital are trending up with an average of 1,117 in the last seven days.

Central Java became only the second province to report over 1,000 cases in a day around two weeks ago and overtook West Java on Tuesday.

Central Java now has a total of 49,313 cases, against West Java’s 48,965 cases, to put it in the top three of worst-affected provinces in the Indonesian outbreak.

The province has a staggering 11,109 active cases of the virus, the highest among other provinces, according to the latest data from the Health Ministry.

At least 2,153 people have died from coronavirus-related disease in Central Java since the outbreak began, also the third-highest nationwide.

However, Governor Ganjar Pranowo disputed the data, saying there has been a discrepancy between the numbers provided by the central government and those of his office.

He noted that as of Monday, there were 7,463 active cases in Central Java according to the provincial count, but the central government put the number at 10,464.

“It comes to my surprise that my province is said to have the highest number of active cases, while in fact we haven’t reached that level yet. There is a difference of 3,000 cases that to me is too big,” he said.

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The governor suspected an entry of some old data from his province to recent daily numbers by the Health Ministry.

Ganjar said he had instructed the provincial Health Department to work together with the central government to correct the data.

However, he didn’t deny that there is a surge in newly cases, which he said was mainly attributable to improvement in testing capacity.

Central Java is able to test 1,416 people per 1 million population per week, well above the World Health Organization requirement of 1,000 people, he said. The figure is more than double the province’s testing capacity in late October.

East Java is ranked second with a total of 59,398 cases, but it has the highest death toll of 4,215. Despite the recent surge, daily numbers in East Java remain below those of Central and West Java.

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It has been averaging 377 cases in the past week.

Newly cases are slowing in East Kalimantan, West Sumatra and North Sumatra, but Banten saw a resurgence and Riau continued to report three-digit daily total.

Banten has been averaging 137 cases in the past week, in comparison to an average of 94 last week, to take its total to 11,950.