Indonesian Muslims mark grim Eid amid devastating virus wave

CGTN

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Muslims pray spaced apart as a precaution against the coronavirus outbreak during an Eid al-Adha prayer at Zona Madina mosque in Bogor, Indonesia, July 20, 2021. /AP

Muslims across Indonesia marked a grim Eid al-Adha festival for a second year on Tuesday as the country struggles to deal with a devastating new wave of coronavirus cases, and the government has banned large gatherings and toughened travel restrictions.

Indonesia is now Asia's COVID-19 hot spot with the most confirmed daily cases. The country has topped Brazil in the highest number of reported COVID-19 deaths, with over 1,000 fatalities per day reported last weekend and it has also surpassed India in the daily number of new cases as hospitals treat patients in tents and volunteers help to bury the dead.

Most of Indonesia's cases are on the densely populated island of Java, where more than half of the country's 270 million people live. Authorities in the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation have banned many of the crowd-attracting activities that are usually part of Eid al-Adha, the Feast of Sacrifice that marks the end of the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca.

Authorities allowed prayers at local mosques in low-risk areas, but elsewhere houses of worship had no congregations, including Jakarta's Istiqlal Grand Mosque, the largest in Southeast Asia.

Officials also banned the huge crowds that usually fill the yards of mosques to participate in ritual animal slaughter for the festival. Religious leaders urged the faithful to pray inside their homes and children were told to not go out to meet friends.

Indonesia confirmed 34,257 new COVID-19 cases with 1,338 deaths on Monday, according to its health ministry, making it the country's deadliest day since the start of the pandemic.

COVID-19 infections in the country are at their peak since last week, with the highest daily average reported at more than 50,000 new infections each day. Until mid-June, daily cases had been running at about 8,000.

Overall, Indonesia has reported more than 2.9 million cases and 74,920 fatalities, which are widely believed to be a vast under count due to low testing and poor tracing measures.

The government put emergency restrictions in place on July 3 across Java island and the tourist island of Bali, limiting all nonessential travel and gatherings and shutting malls, places of worship, and entertainment centers. They were set to end on Tuesday in time for the country to celebrate Eid al-Adha.

But with the wave of infections still expanding, the government's COVID-19 Task Force issued a special directive for the holiday week that bans all public travel, communal prayers, family visits, and gatherings across Java and Bali, and expanded the lockdown measures to 15 cities and districts outside the two islands that have recorded sharp increases in coronavirus cases.

(With input from AP)