Indonesia's Covid Cases Surge Past India, Marking New Covid Epicenter

The country has seen its daily case count cross 40,000 for two straight days -- including a record high of 47,899 on Tuesday -- up from less than 10,000 a month ago.

Indonesia surpassed India's daily Covid-19 case numbers, marking a new Asian virus epicenter as the spread of the highly-contagious delta variant drives up infections in Southeast Asia's largest economy. The country has seen its daily case count cross 40,000 for two straight days -- including a record high of 47,899 on Tuesday -- up from less than 10,000 a month ago. Officials are concerned that the more transmissible new variant is now spreading outside of the country's main island, Java, and could exhaust hospital workers and supplies of oxygen and medication. Indonesia's current numbers are still far from India's peak of 400,000 daily cases in May. India, with a population roughly five times the size of Indonesia's 270 million people, saw daily infections drop below 33,000 on Tuesday as its devastating outbreak wanes. Indonesia reported 907 deaths daily on average in the past seven days -- compared to just 181 a month ago -- while India reported an average of 1,072 daily fatalities.