Indonesia surpasses 50,000 virus cases as business resumes

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — The number of coronavirus cases in Indonesia surpassed 50,000 on Thursday, an increase that is worrying experts at a time when the government is allowing businesses to reopen amid increasing economic pressure.

The surging cases in the world’s fourth-most populous country align with its increasing testing capacity, which has averaged close to the government’s daily target of 20,000 over the past week, said Achmad Yurianto, spokesman for the National COVID-19 Task Force.

But skepticism remains over the ability of the government to conduct enough tests to determine the true spread of the virus in the Southeast Asian nation, home to more than 270 million people living on thousands of islands.

The task force said the coronavirus has infected 50,187 people and killed at least 2,620, the highest number of cases and fatalities in Southeast Asia. That's up from just two positive cases in early March.

A total of 20,449 patients have recovered from the illness nationwide.

Since the first cases were confirmed, Indonesia has tested fewer than 430,000 people, according to government data.

That’s far from the World Health Organization’s recommendation of testing 1% to 1.5% of a country’s population, said Laura Navika Yamani, an epidemiology expert at Airlangga University.

“In terms of epidemiological measures, the situation in Indonesia is indeed not safe,” Yamani said. “Without sufficient testing, the full extent of COVID-19 transmission will remain unknown.”

The soaring number of cases is deepening Indonesia's economic gloom.

Planning Minister Suharso Monoarfa recently said that up to 5.5 million Indonesians may lose their jobs because of the pandemic.

Already, 9.4% of the population lived below the national poverty line last year. He...