WHO warns of COVID surge in Indonesia fed by virus variants

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesia’s president ordered authorities to speed up the country’s vaccination campaign as the World Health Organization warned Thursday of the need to increase social restrictions in the country amid a fresh surge of coronavirus infections caused by worrisome variants.

“We need vaccination acceleration in order to achieve communal immunity, which we hope can stop the COVID-19 spread,” President Joko Widodo said in a remarks while visiting a vaccination center just outside the capital, Jakarta. Widodo said he ordered his cabinet ministers and local governments to increase the number of people vaccinated each day to 1 million by next month. He said Indonesia is currently vaccinating half a million people a day.