Concerns have been raised over response to outbreak in world’s fourth most populous country

Indonesia’s president, Joko Widodo, has acknowledged the need to immediately ramp up testing for the coronavirus following criticism of the response to the outbreak in the world’s fourth most populous country.

Concerns have been raised over the country’s surveillance measures, its transparency and failure to clamp down on mass religious gatherings despite a wave of infections across south-east Asia.

Following confusion over the death toll in the country, it was announced on Thursday that the number of fatalities had risen from 19 to 25.

The number of tests carried out has increased significantly from the 220 completed just over a week ago, leading to a rise in identified cases. On Thursday, 82 more patients were confirmed to have the virus, the country’s biggest daily increase yet, bringing the total to 309.

Indonesia did not record a single confirmed case until 2 March. Officials have previously rejected suggestions that cases were going undetected in the country.

On Thursday, Widodo said mass testing was needed and he would introduce drive-through tests. “I ask that the number of testing kits and the number of test centres are increased and we get more hospitals involved,” he said.

Last weekend, Widodo admitted that some information relating to cases had been withheld, saying: “We have to think of the possibility that the public will react to it by panicking or worrying.”

The president has previously rejected calls to impose a lockdown in hard- hit areas of Indonesia, despite the Philippines and Malaysia introducing restrictions, and he has apparently blocked attempts by regional leaders in East Java to impose containment measures.

There have been calls to halt religious gatherings in the country. On Wednesday evening, a large rally of Muslim pilgrims in South Sulawesi province was eventually called off after officials said it could fuel transmission. By the time it was cancelled, however, about 9,000 people had already travelled from across the country and beyond to attend the event.

Regional police and local authorities had repeatedly stated that the four-day gathering should not go ahead, citing a similar meeting attended by 16,000 people in Malaysia that has contributed to hundreds of infections in the country and been linked to cases elsewhere across the region.

On Thursday morning, medical teams began screening thousands of people who had travelled to the event in South Sulawesi. More than 400 people from nine other countries including Malaysia, Singapore and Saudi Arabia will be isolated at a hotel, while pilgrims from other regions of Indonesia will be quarantined at a government dormitory.

In the province of East Nusa Tenggara, officials failed to prevent about 1,500 people from gathering for a ceremony to inaugurate a new Catholic bishop.

In Jakarta, Friday prayers were expected to go ahead at Istiqlal, the biggest mosque in south-east Asia.

This week, Indonesia’s most important Muslim body issued a fatwa stating that people in areas with a “high or very high transmission potential” should not attend Friday prayers but others should do so. It is feared that such advice will prove unhelpful given that testing levels remain low.

“Our fatwa is not aimed at preventing corona, the government is the one who [has to] prevent the corona. Our fatwa is to give guidance on how to worship when there is a corona outbreak,” Muhammad Cholil Nafis, the Indonesia Ulema Council’s head of Islamic preaching, told the Guardian.

In Bali, Hindu purification ceremonies held on beaches before Nyepi – silent day, in the ancient Balinese calendar – will be attended by limited numbers of people, probably thousands spread across beaches and other sites, said Ida Penglingsir Putra Sukahet, a member of the Adat village assembly.

“The risk is there. But we always have to think, if we didn’t carry out malasti [a religious procession to the sea for purification], the risk would be more terrible. That is our belief,” Sukahet said.