TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Singapore reported its first two COVID-19 deaths with an Indonesian national and a Singaporean succumbing to the infection on Saturday morning.

"A 64-year-old Indonesian citizen who was infected with COVID-19 and was being treated in Singapore died on March 21, 2020," the Indonesian Foreign Affairs Ministry's director of Protection of Indonesian Citizens and Legal Entities Abroad, Judha Nugraha, said via text message on Saturday.

The Singapore Ministry of Health wrote on its official website that two patients died from complications caused by COVID-19 on March 21 morning — the Indonesian national and a 75-year-old Singaporean woman, who had been admitted to the National Center for Infectious Diseases (NCID) on February 23 for pneumonia and was confirmed to have a COVID-19 infection the same day.

The Ministry of Health and the NCID have reached out to the families of the two patients and provided assistance to them.

In the meantime, the number of positive cases of COVID-19 in Indonesia has increased by 81, bringing the total to 450, said Achmad Yurianto, government spokesperson for COVID-19 response, on Saturday.

The death toll has increased by six to touch 38, he added.

"We have given all this data to all heads of provincial offices, and they have forwarded the data to hospitals where the patients are being treated," Yurianto told the press here on Saturday.

Jakarta has reported 44 new cases, taking the total in the capital city so far to 267. The number of cases in West Java have reached 55 with the addition of 14 fresh cases. With 11 new cases, East Java now has 26 patients. Banten has reported four new cases, bringing the total to 43. Meanwhile, Central Java and South Sulawesi have reported two fresh cases.

Of the six most recent deaths, five were reported from Jakarta and one from Banten.

Meanwhile, four more coronavirus patients have recovered in the country, bringing the total number of recovered patients to 20, Yurianto added.

ANTARA