A paramedic performs rapid test for a man in Jakarta, Indonesia, April 8, 2020. The Indonesian government said on Wednesday the death toll of the COVID-19 in the country climbed to 240, the highest in Southeast Asia. At a press conference, the government's spokesperson for the COVID-19 Achmad Yurianto said that the number of confirmed cases jumped to 2,956 and as many as 222 patients have recovered from the disease. (Photo by Edy Susanto/Xinhua)
JAKARTA, April 8 (Xinhua) -- The Indonesian government said on Wednesday the death toll of the COVID-19 in the country climbed to 240, the highest in Southeast Asia.
At a press conference, the government's spokesperson for the COVID-19 Achmad Yurianto said that the number of confirmed cases jumped to 2,956 and as many as 222 patients have recovered from the disease.
Jakarta, home to some 10 million people, suffers the highest number of deaths totaling 114, followed by West Java 35, Central Java 22, Banten 18, East Java 16, and the rest recorded in other areas.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo has declared a national public health emergency over the COVID-19 pandemic and issued a government regulation on a large-scale social restriction.
Authorities have been conducting rapid tests in areas where cases were detected, and ordering the public to always wear masks in a bid to contain the further spread of the virus.
The government has turned the Wisma Atlet Kemayoran, the apartment towers in 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 in Kepulauan Riau province, which has started operating since Monday.
