Indonesian city Surabaya turns into ‘black zone’ as COVID-19 cases mount

A security guard checks the temperature of a visitor in front of the World Trade Center shopping mall in Surabaya, East Java, on May 21. Surabaya in East Java has been designated a “black zone” as the region recorded nearly 3,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases as of Tuesday, second only to Jakarta with the most number of COVID-19 cases. (Antara/Zabur Karuru) via The Jakarta Post

JAKARTA — Surabaya in East Java has turned into a “black zone” as the region recorded nearly 3,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases as of Tuesday.

East Java COVID-19 task force head Joni Wahyuhadi said regions with confirmed coronavirus cases across the province appeared red on the administration’s official coronavirus map and would appear darker as they continued to record more cases.

“As a region records more cases, it will appear increasingly darker and eventually black on the map,” Joni said on Tuesday as quoted by kompas.com.

As of Tuesday, Surabaya has recorded 2,748 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 253 deaths linked to the disease, making it the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in East Java.

All other 37 regencies and municipalities in East Java appear red on the provincial administration’s official COVID-19 map.

Other regions in the province that appear darker than others on the map include Sidoarjo regency with 683 cases and 59 deaths, and Gresik regency with 183 cases and 20 deaths.

In total, East Java has the second-highest number of COVID-19 cases in the country with 5,132 cases and 418 fatalities, behind only Jakarta.

East Java Governor Khofifah Indar Parawansa and Surabaya Mayor Tri Rismaharini previously locked horns over two mobile polymerase chain reaction (PCR) labs.

The two mobile labs had been loaned by the National Disaster Mitigation Agency for use in Surabaya but were taken over by the province’s COVID-19 task force and sent to Lamongan and Tulungagung regencies instead.