SINGAPORE, April 23. /TASS/. The number of coronavirus cases in Indonesia increased by 357 in a single day to exceed 7,700, spokesperson for the national Health Ministry Achmad Yurianto told a press conference broadcast via Facebook on Thursday.
According to him, "The total number of cases reached 7,775, an increase of 357 infections over the past 24 hours." He also said, "Over the past 24 hours, 11 patients died. Overall, 647 fatalities were identified in the country since the outbreak started." This is the highest death toll in Southeast Asia.
The official added that 47 people recovered in the country in one day with the total number of recoveries now standing at 960.
On March 2, the Indonesian government reported its first coronavirus case, much later than other Southeast Asian countries. Experts suggest that the real number of infections can be much higher than the official figures as Indonesia continues to have one of the lowest test rates in the world with only 99 tests being conducted per one million people. Neighboring Malaysia, for instance, performs 2,000 tests per one million people, while South Korea and Singapore carry out 10,000 tests each. By expert assessment, Jakarta needs to ramp up testing and conduct 2.7 million tests to catch up, the country has so far only performed 26,500 tests.
In late December 2019, Chinese officials notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, in central China. Since then, cases of the novel coronavirus — named COVID-19 by the WHO — have been reported in every corner of the globe.
On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. According to the latest statistics, over 2,600,000 people have been infected worldwide and more than 184,000 deaths have been reported. In addition, so far, over 723,000 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe.