Thousands lined up outside a sports stadium in Indonesia Thursday to receive COVID-19 vaccinations as the country saw its deadliest day of the pandemic. The one-day, mass vaccination campaign is part of a push to boost medical care, testing and immunizations as the Red Cross warns Indonesia is "on the edge of a COVID-19 catastrophe."
Indonesia has been contending with widespread outbreaks over the past couple weeks and documented a record 504 deaths and 24,836 new cases Thursday, the Associated Press reported. The country, holding the fourth largest population in the world, has now confirmed 2,203,108 total cases and 58,995 deaths.
President Joko Widodo announced Indonesia would be implementing national police aid and new COVID-19 community regulations in Java and Bali to help curtail the spread
"I call on people to be disciplined in complying with these restrictions for the safety of all," Widodo said. "The Health Ministry will continuously increase hospital capacity, centralized isolation facilities as well as the availability of medicines, medical equipment and oxygen tanks."
For more reporting from the Associated Press, see below.
Thursday's mass vaccination event was part of efforts to reach a target of 1 million doses per day in July and 2 million in August.
At the stadium in Bekasi, outside Jakarta, local authorities aimed to vaccine 25,000 people. Tanti Rohilawati, chief of Bekasi's health agency, said more than 1,500 health care workers, including 550 to give the shots, were involved in the event.
More than 80% of beds at the Bekasi city hospital are filled, and Mayor Rahmat Effendi said tents were set up in the hospital's parking lot to treat COVID-19 patients with moderate and severe symptoms.
Similar conditions were seen elsewhere. A Red Cross COVID-19 hospital in Bogor, outside of Jakarta, was "overflowing" and using emergency tents as well.
The world's fourth-most populous country has seen a rapid surge in COVID-19 cases in the last two weeks. Indonesia had its deadliest day with 504 people confirmed deaths from the virus on Thursday, while new cases set another record at 24,836. The country has recorded a total of 2,203,108 cases, including 58,995 deaths.
Indonesia aims to inoculate more than 181 million of its 270 million people by March 2022, but authorities have only fully vaccinated 13.6 million people and partially vaccinated another 16.6 million others so far.
On Wednesday, raw materials for 14 million doses of the China-developed Sinovac vaccine arrived. The country has received 118.7 million doses produced by Sinovac, AstraZeneca and Sinopharm.
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