It took almost 14 hours to collect a Covid-19 corpse in Jakarta this week, police said, as the Indonesian capital scrambles to deal with a surge in coronavirus cases and deaths, according to Reuters.

Police in the port area of Tanjung Priok said they responded on Monday to a call about a Covid-19 corpse, wrapped in a white shroud, left on the doorstep of a North Jakarta home.

Not authorised to handle coronavirus victims, officers called the local taskforce, but were told there would be a wait.

That body was eighth in the queue because the Jakarta Covid-19 taskforce was handling other victims, said Ghulam Pasaribu, Tanjung Priok Police chief.

The body, he said, was collected at 1.30 am on Tuesday, more than 13 hours later.

It was one of 143 burials in Jakarta that day — the most since the pandemic began, according to Ivan Nurcahyo at Jakarta's parks department, which handles cemeteries and burials.