06-11-2021, 04:21 PM
![[Image: 210610204757-coronavirus-variants-indone...ge-169.jpg]](https://cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/210610204757-coronavirus-variants-indonesia-regional-clusters-intl-hnk-exlarge-169.jpg)
A jump in coronavirus cases on Indonesia's two most populous islands has health experts worried the worst could be yet to come, with few curbs on movement at a time when dangerous variants drive record fatalities elsewhere in Southeast Asia.
Case numbers have risen sharply in Java and Sumatra three weeks after holidays that followed the Islamic fasting month, when millions ventured across the archipelago, ignoring a temporary travel ban.
In Kudus, central Java, cases skyrocketed 7,594% since then, according to Wiku Adisasmito of Indonesia's Covid-19 taskforce. Health care reinforcements have been brought in, but hospital capacity had hit 90%, local media reported.
Defriman Djafri, an epidemiologist from Andalas University in Padang, said fatalities in West Sumatra in May were the highest on record.
In Riau on Sumatra, daily cases more than doubled from early April to over 800 by mid-May, while the positivity rate was at 35.8% last week, said Wildan Asfan Hasibuan, an epidemiologist and provincial task force adviser.
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