Indonesia confirmed yesterday 196 new coronavirus infections, marking the biggest daily rise since the first cases were announced a month ago, said a health ministry official.
Achmad Yurianto, the official, said that the total number of infections in the Southeast Asian country was 1,986.
Eleven new deaths were reported, taking the total to 181, while 134 patients had recovered.
Indonesian Islamic scholars are seeking to avoid the usual mass homecoming for Eid al-Fitr, forbidding people from travelling home during the 
coronavirus pandemic.
The fatwa was issued by the Indonesian Council of Ulema a day after President Joko Widodo decided to allow millions of Muslims to travel to celebrate Eid in their hometowns next month, despite fears that they could spread the coronavirus.
“The virus spreads very easily. Doing something like that at a time of a pandemic is haram [forbidden],” the council’s sectary 
general Anwar Abbas said.
Eid al-Fitr, the festival marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, is expected to start on May 23, depending on the sighting of the new moon.
Last year, about 15mn Eid revellers travelled from the greater Jakarta region to their hometowns in the world’s largest Muslim-majority country.
The State Intelligence Agency warned that the outbreak in Indonesia could peak in June with more than 105,000 cases.
The president on Tuesday issued a decree for a national health emergency and ordered large-scale “social restrictions.”
On Thursday, Indonesia has released some 18,000 inmates in a desperate bid to stop coronavirus from rampaging through its notoriously overcrowded prison system.
The mass release comes days after the Southeast Asian nation said it would free more than 30,000 inmates to take pressure off prisons and jails beset by unsanitary conditions and long at risk of infectious diseases.
The UN has called on countries to release vulnerable 
inmates.
“Our target is to release 30,000 inmates in total, but it could end up being more,” said Rika Aprianti, a spokeswoman for the Corrections Directorate General.
“This is part of the plan to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in prisons.”