JAKARTA, March 23 (Xinhua) -- The COVID-19 outbreak has claimed 49 lives in Indonesia, while 65 new cases were confirmed on Monday, bringing the total to 579 in the country, the Indonesian government said on Monday.

At a press conference, the government's spokesperson for all COVID-19 related matters Achmad Yurianto said that 30 people have recovered from the disease.

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 to treat people with the COVID-19.

The hospital intends to treat as many as 24,000 patients, starting operation on Monday (March 23) afternoon.

President Joko Widodo has inspected the facilities and said that the hospital would only start taking COVID-19 patients when all existing government facilities are already filled to meet the capacity.

Earlier, the president said that two islands, the Sebaru island on the Java Sea in the northern part of Jakarta and the Galang island in the Riau Islands, will be used to quarantine and observe people infected with the virus starting on March 28. Enditem

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