Jakarta, Jun 27 (IANS): Indonesia has set a target of administering two million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine daily in August in efforts to curb the surge in the number of new cases, according to President Joko Widodo.
In a statement on Saturday, Widodo said the recent surge in the Southeast Asian country was worsened by the inclusion of the more contagious Delta, Alpha and Beta variants, reports Xinhua news agency.
The daily number of two million doses marks a sharp increase over the target of 700,000 doses in June and 1 million doses in July.
"I hope that starting today the target of 1 million doses of vaccine (per day) is achieved for the entire Indonesian population and we will keep it until July. In August, we are targeting twice," Widodo said.
Indonesia has administered 25.48 million doses till date, including 12.91 million as the second doses.
On Saturday, the country recorded 21,095 new Covid cases, marking the highest daily spike, which increased the total tally to 2,093,962, the Health Ministry said.
The death toll stood at 56,729.
An additional 7,396 people were discharged from hospitals, raising the total number of recoveries in the country to 1,842,457.
The pandemichas spread to all of Indonesia's 34 provinces.