The number of COVID-19 positive cases in Indonesia has now exceeded 70,000 including 2,657 new cases within 24 hours, the highest since the first case was detected on March 2.

Indonesian government's spokesman on COVID-19, Achmad Yurianto said the total number of positive cases rose to 70,736, while there were 3,417 deaths recorded so far.

"For the period from noon yesterday to noon today, there were 58 more deaths while 13,732 patients were still being monitored," he said at his daily news conference on the COVID-19 situation in the republic, broadcast via the official YouTube channel of the Indonesian Agency for Disaster Management (BNPB).

East Java Province recorded the highest number of deaths at 1,125, followed by Jakarta (671), Central Java (225), South Kalimantan (209) while the rest of the fatalities were in the other provinces.

East Java also had the highest number of positive cases at 15,484, followed by Jakarta (13,488) and the rest of the cases occurred in 32 other provinces.

-- BERNAMA