Jakarta (ANTARA) - 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 treated at hospitals to 169,351, the task force stated.
In the past 24 hours, 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 in the past 24 hours, 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 in the past 24 hours.
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 so far to 9,791,928, the task force informed.
The Indonesian 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 Indonesian Defence Forces (TNI) to carry out vaccinations and contact tracing at the grassroots level.
"The coronavirus pandemic is a war. That is why we are here to work with the TNI commander and National Police chief to fight this war," Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said in Cilangkap, East Jakarta, on Tuesday.
The objective of the fight against the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic must be clear — it is specifically to curb Indonesia's infection rate, he notified journalists after attending a roll-call at the TNI headquarters, Sadikin remarked.
The roll-call was organized to reflect the preparedness of vaccinators and contact tracers that would be involved in Indonesia's national vaccination program and contact-tracing efforts at the grassroots level.
"Our strategy is how to develop solid intelligence capability to enable us to identify where and who will be the target group to join the COVID-19 testing and contact tracing," he explained.
The vaccination and contact tracing programs will be conducted in all community units (RW), neighborhood units (RT), villages, districts, and cities in Indonesia owing to the TNI and police's solid networks right till the grassroots level, he said.
In addition to working with the TNI and police, collaborating with communities is also key to reducing the COVID-19 infection rate as an objective of this "war", he affirmed.
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