On Thursday, Indonesia reported 3,622 new coronavirus infections, marking yet another day of record-high cases.
The 134 newly reported deaths took total fatalities in the country to 7,750.
The record new cases come just as Indonesian President Joko Widodo said he predicted cases to spike this month.
Pandu Riono, an epidemiologist at the University of Indonesia, told a virtual news conference:
“We haven’t managed to control transmission and remember the COVID-19 pandemic is not spreading randomly, but in distributed clusters in very large areas,”
“We have to change strategy.”
Riono also called for improvements in basic measures such as testing, contact-tracing, and self-isolation.
With late and loosely imposed lockdowns in addition to a refusal to curb economic activity, the government has repeatedly been accused of valuing the economy over public health.
The Panthera Post 