Indonesia reports 213 newly-confirmed COVID-19 cases, 10 new deaths

JAKARTA, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) — Indonesia reported 213 more people infected by COVID-19 on Thursday, raising the total tally of infections to 4,259,857, with the death toll adding by 10 in the past 24 hours, bringing the number to 143,979, according to the data from the Health Ministry.

The biggest number of the new cases was found in capital city Jakarta, with 40 newly-confirmed cases, followed by West Java, the country’s most populous province, with 38 cases and East Java with 24 cases.

Meanwhile, 234 more patients have been recovered, raising the number of recoveries to 4,111,045 cases.

Indonesia also recorded its very first citizen infected by the Omicron variant on Thursday. The patient is a cleaning service worker at the Wisma Atlet Hospital in Jakarta, a special hospital to treat COVID-19 patients.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo has urged all people, particularly high-level state officials, not to travel abroad for the time being, following the detection of the very first case of Omicron variant in the country.

“I ask all people, especially all state officials, to refrain from traveling abroad, at least until the situation gets better,” the president told a press conference on Thursday.

He told the public to stay calm and encouraged them to immediately take their complete doses of COVID-19 jabs as an attempt to prevent infections.

As of Thursday, more than 149 million people in Indonesia have received their first jabs of COVID-19 vaccines, while over 105 million have taken full doses, and around 1.2 million people have got their third booster shots.

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