Indonesia  became the coronavirus hotspot in Asia, overtaking India as the country reporting maximum daily COVID-19 cases in the region.

The archipelago recorded over 54,000 fresh coronavirus cases today, replacing India as Asia’s new virus hotspot.

Officials believe the Delta variant of SARS-Cov-2, which was first discovered in India, is driving the surge in cases in the country. It may be noted here that India doo had blamed the Delta variant for the devastating second wave of the pandemic witnessed in the country between March and June.

Indonesian officials believe that the Delta variant, which is highly transmissible, is likely spreading outside the islands of Java and Bali, where earlier outbreaks triggered a partial lockdown. The two islands had closed down places of worship, malls, parks and restaurants to stem the surge in coronavirus cases.

“I predict the outbreak will increase continuously in July as we are not able yet to prevent the spread of infections,” epidemiology expert Pandu Riono at the University of Indonesia was quoted as saying by the Associated Press news agency. “Emergency social restrictions are still inadequate. They should be twice as stringent since we are facing the delta variant, which is two times more contagious,” he added.

As per the Indonesian Health Ministry, a total of 54,517 new coronavirus cases were recorded on Wednesday along with 991 deaths. Indonesia now has over 2.6 million confirmed cases of coronavirus along with over 69,000 fatalities.

In contrast, Indonesia was reporting just around 8,000 cases about a month back.

At the height of its second wave, India reported more than 4,00,000 coronavirus cases in a single days. In fact, the country was recording over 4,00,000 cases for several days before the decline started.

On Wednesday, India reported fewer than 39,000 cases