In a live-streamed press briefing on Thursday, Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister Luhut Pandjaitan said the government was preparing scenarios should the country see a further surge in confirmed COVID-19 cases.

“If we’re talking about 60,000 [new cases a day] or slightly higher than that, that’s still fine. We’re hoping that the figure won’t reach 100,000. But even if we get there, we’re preparing ourselves for the worst scenario,” Luhut said.

Indonesia has overtaken India as Asia’s new epicenter for the coronavirus pandemic, with daily infections exceeding 50,000 — up more than 10-fold on the number of cases in early June.

On Thursday, the Health Ministry confirmed 56,757 new cases, bringing a cumulative total of 2.72 million cases. Moreover, authorities recorded 982 new deaths on the same day, bringing the total tally for COVID-19 deaths in the country to 70,192.

To date, health authorities have recorded 480,199 active COVID-19 cases across the nation.

Read also: PPKM Darurat necessary for sustainable recovery in Indonesia

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