Indonesian Muslims pray spaced apart as they practice social distancing in Sidoarjo,East Java,Indonesia.Credit:AP
The new record high in cases comes as the country begins easing lockdown restrictions and restart some sectors of the economy.
Mosques,churches and other houses of worship began to re-open on Friday in the capital of Jakarta and limited services have resumed on the city's MRT underground train line. Other social restrictions are also being eased under plans for a"new normal"regime that will allow businesses to re-open as long as health rules are followed.
However,in the last two weeks the country has recorded fewer than 500 new daily cases just three times
While testing rates have improved and President Joko Widodo's goal of 10,000 tests per day has been met and surpassed – 13,095 tests were performed on 7930 people according to the daily update – the country still lags well behind neighbouring countries.
Overall,394,068 tests have been performed on 264,740 people – a relatively small number for a nation of nearly 270 million people. In comparison,Australia has performed more than 1.5 million tests on a population of 25 million people,while Singapore has performed 408,495 tests on 5.6 million people and Malaysia has done 462,257 tests on 31 million people.
More concerning is the fact that the percentage of positive tests returned is a relatively high 11.5 per cent.