A fire on Sunday night damaged a building at the Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) headquarters in Central Jakarta. No casualties were reported and only one room in the building on Jl. Percetakan Negara was damaged, the agency said in a statement on Monday.

Fueled by the spread of the more virulent Delta variant, Indonesia has reported more new COVID-19 cases than any country in the world, according to the latest seven-day average from a Reuters data tracker. It was second only to Brazil in terms of the number of deaths.

A total of 114 doctors died during July 1-17, the highest number reported for any period of similar length and more than 20 percent of the 545 total doctor deaths from COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic, officials from Indonesia Medical Association (IDI) said during a virtual news conference.

The country is treading a fine line between avoiding extreme spread of the virus over the upcoming Islamic holidays and allowing Muslims to celebrate Idul Adha.

The national COVID-19 task force reported 51,952 new confirmed infections on Saturday, bringing the cumulative confirmed tally to 2.8 million cases.

Researchers believe many of the cases were asymptomatic.

Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung confirmed on Friday that the government had scrapped plans to allow self-funded inoculation under the Gotong Royong scheme, an expansion of the program that had sparked strong public criticism.

In its latest response to the daily tally of 54,000 new cases recorded on Friday, the government has extended the PPKM Darurat through the end of the month.

As healthcare workers and hospitals struggle to treat record numbers of COVID-19 patients in many parts of the country, several high-ranking government officials have made statements that have elicited public criticism.

The government has banned public celebrations of Idul Adha (Day of Sacrifice), which is set to fall on Tuesday, in areas where the emergency public activity restrictions (PPKM Darurat) are in effect, to avoid further transmission of the COVID-19.

As the pandemic sweeps through Indonesia at an alarming rate, mobility restrictions have exacerbated existing problems with HIV care.

The government started on Thursday the distribution of free medicine packages to support the self-isolating COVID-19 patients during their isolation period as the country continues to record soaring coronavirus cases.

The House of Representatives passed a bill that revised the Papuan Special Autonomy Law in a plenary session on Thursday, granting more power to native Papuans. But activists fear it will only deepen existing tensions.

The government is preparing to activate the worst-case scenario should Indonesia record more than 60,000 new cases daily, but has stopped short of extending the emergency public activity restrictions (PPKM Darurat).

Edhy, who is a politician from the Gerindra party, was arrested last November at the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport after returning home from a trip to the United States with his wife.

Officials of community health centers (Puskesmas) have reported being overwhelmed by the current wave of COVID-19, with many falling sick and losing their lives to the virus.

The Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) has authorized the US-German COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use, kicking off delivery of 50 million doses through 2021 with the first shipment in August-September. The news comes just a day after the vaccine developers announced the deal.

The embassy has started contacting residents to see if they want to take the Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways flight to return to Japan, it said.

In a streamed news conference, Luhut also said that vaccine efficacy was weaker against the Delta variant of the virus that accounted for most infections on Java island, but urged people to get inoculated to help prevent serious illness and death.

The country recorded a record-breaking 54,517 new infections and 991 deaths on Wednesday, overtaking India as the worst-affected country in Asia.

The data also showed 991 new deaths, bringing the total number to 69,210. Indonesia has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths from COVID-19 in Southeast Asia.

The health minister says that most oxygen producers are located in West Java and East Java, which presented logistical difficulties in distributing the gas to hospitals located elsewhere on Java.

The All Nippon Airways aircraft, which departed Jakarta's international airport, is set to arrive at Narita airport near Tokyo later in the day, according to Japanese government and Shimizu Corp. sources. The major general contractor chartered the plane, Kyodo News Reported.

The country is fighting a devastating new virus outbreak fueled by the highly contagious delta variant that has stretched parts of the health system to breaking point.

The Health Ministry will convert more hospital beds into isolation and intensive care unit beds for COVID-19 patients in Jakarta and Yogyakarta if the case surge continues.

Non-coronavirus patients are grappling with concerns that hospitals might refuse to treat them due to a recent surge of COVID-19 cases that has pushed the country’s healthcare system to the limit.

With unprecedented numbers of daily cases and deaths in the past week, and a collapsed healthcare system, Indonesia appears to be looking to India -- which managed to reduce the virus spread within two months – in the hope that there could be an end to the current nightmare.

State-owned pharmaceutical firm PT Kimia Farma offered a privately paid COVID-19 vaccination program in Indonesia for Rp 879,000 (US$60) for two doses of Sinopharm vaccines.

As the government continues to speed up COVID-19 inoculation in a bid to help bring down infections, foreigners are now included as part of the free vaccination drive.

It also reported 891 additional COVID-19 deaths, taking the total to 67,355. Indonesia has reported more than 2.5 million cases overall.