THE INTENSIFIED REPORT

Millions of Muslims in Indonesia on Tuesday celebrated Eid al-Adha, one of the most important Islamic festivals, as President Joko Widodo pledged that tighter coronavirus restrictions would remain in place until infections dropped. Indonesia is now Asia’s COVID-19 hot spot with the most confirmed daily cases, as infections and deaths have surged over the past three weeks and India’s massive outbreak has waned. Most of Indonesia’s cases are on the densely populated island of Java, where more than half of the country’s 270 million people live. Authorities in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation have banned many of the crowd-attracting activities that are usually part of Eid al-Adha, the Feast of Sacrifice that marks the end of the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca. Authorities allowed prayers at local mosques in low-risk areas, but elsewhere houses of worship had no congregations, including Jakarta’s Istiqlal Grand Mosque, the largest in So

Indonesia recorded 3,891 new cases of coronavirus on Friday September 18, the health ministry has announced. Indonesia has now recorded a total of 236,519 cases of the novel coronavirus, 170,774 recoveries and 9,336 fatalities.

The Health Ministry announced 387 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on Sunday, bringing the total number of infections nationwide to 14,032. Speaking at a press conference on Sunday, the ministry’s disease control and prevention director general, Achmad Yurianto, added that 16 more people had died of the disease, bringing the death toll to 973. The total number of recovered patients has also increased to 2,698. The capital city recorded 134 new confirmed cases, bringing the total tally to 5,190. Meanwhile, East Java reported 83 new cases, Papua 31, Central Java 19 and North Sulawesi 18.  The virus has spread to all of the country's 34 provinces.