JAKARTA (Reuters) – Indonesia is bracing for a significant increase in coronavirus cases as it widens efforts to locate and test victims, health ministry official Achmad Yurianto said on Tuesday.
A cleaning worker wearing protective suit sprays disinfectant inside the cabin of a Lion Air’s Boeing 737-800, amid the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport near Jakarta, Indonesia, March 17, 2020. REUTERS/Willy Kurniawan
“There will be quite a significant increase in the number of patients because we’re actively tracing,” he said.
Yurianto made the prediction as he revealed there were 38 new coronavirus cases in the past two days in Indonesia, bringing the total number of infections to 172, with five recorded deaths.
Most of the new cases were found in Jakarta, but they were also detected in East Java, Central Java and Riau Island provinces, he said. Previous cases had been found in Bali, Borneo and Sulawesi islands.
Indo