JAKARTA, March 26 (Xinhua) -- The death toll of the COVID-19 in Indonesia climbed to 78 by noon local time on Thursday, according to the Indonesian government.

At a press conference, the government's spokesperson for the all coronavirus-related matters Achmad Yurianto said that 893 cases had been confirmed in the archipelagic country and 35 patients had recovered from the disease.

Indonesia is the world's fourth most populous nation with Jakarta as its capital which has reported the biggest number of COVID-19 fatalities standing at 46, followed by West Java province with 11 deaths.

Authorities are not imposing a lockdown policy to tackle the coronavirus outbreak but conducting rapid tests in areas where cases are found.

The government has turned the Wisma Atlet Kemayoran, the apartment towers in Central Jakarta which were used by billet athletes competing in the 2018 Asian Games, into an emergency hospital to treat COVID-19 patients.

The hospital, which started its operation on Monday, has a capacity to treat as many as 24,000 patients, Indonesian President Joko Widodo said recently.

The president also 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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