COVID-19: Infections in Indonesia surge past 1,000, fatalities climb to nearly 90

The tally of coronavirus cases in Indonesia surpassed the 1,000 mark on Saturday.

The world's fourth-most populous nation reported 153 new cases on Friday, the highest single-day jump, bringing the total number of infections to 1,046, The Strait Times reported.

Meanwhile, another nine people have died from Covid-19, the respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus, bringing the total number of fatalities in the South Asian country to 87, the highest in South-east Asia.

At a regular briefing on Friday, the country's official spokesman on the Covid-19 pandemic, Achmad Yurianto, said authorities were actively tracing new confirmed cases with rapid testing kits to try and curb the virus' spread.

"We have distributed nearly 500,000 rapid testing kits to all provinces. We're trying to use this (method) for tracing," he said.

The government has appealed to all Indonesians to adopt social distancing measures and advised citizens to be at home.

Indonesia's health ministry has estimated that between 600,000 and 700,000 of the population are at risk of being infected with the virus.

Furthermore, health experts were quoted as saying that the outbreak is expected to peak in May during the Ramadan fasting month, which begins at the end of April.

Meanwhile, British Ambassador Owen Jenkins has advised British citizens to return home.

"Many Brits love this great, beautiful country and have made Indonesia their home... but Covid-19 travel disruption means our advice is - if you can think of any circumstances where you would wish to be in UK over the next few months, we strongly advise you to leave," he said in a video posted on the embassy's Twitter account on Wednesday.

The United States Embassy in Jakarta has also appealed to US nationals to do likewise.

"Under the Global Level 4 Health Advisory, US citizens currently in Indonesia should arrange for immediate return to the United States, unless they are prepared to remain abroad for an extended period. US citizens seeking to depart Indonesia should make their own travel arrangements as soon as practicable, since commercial flights are still available, albeit at significantly reduced levels," it said on Thursday.

The State Department has instructed the US embassy employees' family members under 21 to depart Indonesia, citing "current Indonesian medical capacity" and "current availability of flights out of Indonesia".