Indonesia confirms 1,677 virus cases, 100+ recoveries

JAKARTA

Indonesia on Wednesday reported 1,677 COVID-19 cases, with the addition of 149 new cases in the last 24 hours.

“As of today, there were 157 people who died, while 103 patients have recovered,” said Achmad Yurianto, the government spokesman for handling COVID-19.

In the past 24 hours, at least 21 patients died, and 22 others have recovered.

“This means virus transmission is still ongoing. But people are still ignoring social and health restrictions,” he added.

A total of 32 provinces have reported COVID-19 cases, but most were reported in the capital city of Jakarta with 794 cases.

So far, there are 6,500 specimens examined in 34 laboratories across the country using Polymerase Chain Reaction.

Yurianto said rapid tests are still used, and as many as 475,200 equipments were distributed to various regions.

In addition, 349,000 self-protective devices for medical personnels have been distributed, and 360 referral hospitals prepared to treat COVID-19 patients.

The government is planning to use the molecular machine -- usually used to examine tuberculosis patients -- for rapid tests.

Indonesia has confirmed its first two cases of COVID-19 on March 2, 2020. The number of confirmed cases has continued to rise since then.

After first appearing in Wuhan, China, in December, the virus, officially known as COVID-19, has spread to at least 180 countries and regions, indicates the Johns Hopkins University database.

The data shows the confirmed number of cases worldwide has surpassed 874,000, with the death toll over 43,200, and more than 184,700 recoveries.

* Writing by Maria Elisa Hospita from Anadolu Agency's Indonesian language service.