JAKARTA — Mosques were jammed across virus-wracked Indonesia on Friday despite warnings against mass gatherings as the daily death toll in the world’s biggest Muslim-majority nation soared to a record high.
Skyrocketing Covid-19 infections and deaths are hammering hospitals in the Southeast Asian country of nearly 270 million, which is overtaking India as Asia’s coronavirus epicenter.
Fearing a further explosion in transmission, the government and Indonesian Mosque Council have called on millions of the faithful to pray at home as deaths hit 1,205 over the past 24 hours, with 54,000 new cases.
But the call to prayer on Friday, Islam’s holiest day, was too strong f…
Keep on reading: Call to prayer draws crowds in Covid-wracked Indonesia