Indonesia’s Covid Cases Reach Two-Month High as Omicron Looms

(Bloomberg) -- Indonesia added the highest number of Covid-19 cases in two months and breached a key threshold that could prompt tighter restrictions.

The health ministry reported 533 infections on Thursday, the most since Nov. 4, with seven people dying from the disease. More than half of the new cases were found in the capital Jakarta, which reported 267.

The government has said it will enforce more stringent measures if the country's caseload reaches 500 and 1,000 cases each day. Despite the uptick in infections, Indonesia's Covid-19 situation is a far cry from the previous peak of the local outbreak, when the country reported more than 50,000 daily cases with the positivity rate surging above 30%.

This time, the proportion of those tested who turn out positive is 0.26%, an increase from 0.1% last week and within the World Health Organization's recommendation for the rate to be kept below 5%. The national bed occupancy ratio for Covid-19 patients stood at 1% as of Tuesday.

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