JAKARTA, April 5 (Xinhua) -- The death toll of the COVID-19 in Indonesia climbed to 198 on Sunday, while a total of 2,273 cases were confirmed in the archipelagic country and 164 patients have recovered from the disease, the government's spokesperson for COVID-19-related matters Achmad Yurianto said in a press conference on Sunday.
Jakarta, home to some 10 million people, suffers the highest number of deaths totaling 95, followed by West Java 28, Central Java 18, Banten 17, East Java 14, and the rest recorded in other areas.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo has declared a national public health emergency over the coronavirus pandemic.
Authorities have been conducting rapid tests in areas where cases were detected, and urging the public to always wear masks in a bid to contain the spread of the coronavirus.
The government has turned the Wisma Atlet Kemayoran, the apartment towers in central Jakarta which were used to billet athletes competing in the 2018 Asian Games, into an emergency hospital intended to treat as many as 24,000 COVID-19 patients.
The government has also built a COVID-19 emergency hospital on a 16-hectare site on Galang Island, which is set to start operation on April 6.
