Jakarta (Bloomberg) – Indonesia's President Joko Widodo has been bolstering speculation that a herb concoction can ward against being infected with the coronavirus.

Wendy Tuohy – Like thousands of others thrust into a health crisis by Australia's most common women's cancer, breast cancer, Kirsty Sword Gusmao was not ready to be told that she had it.

Ganug Nugroho Adi, Surakarta, Central Java – A top official reported on Friday that a novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patient had died in Surakarta, Central Java. It was the second COVID-19 death in the country.

Adrian Wail Akhlas, Jakarta – Indonesia is set to temporarily ban exports of face masks to ensure there is a sufficient domestic supply amid the COVID-19 outbreak, Trade Minister Agus Suparmanto said on Friday.

Adrian Wail Akhlas, Jakarta – The government is set to move up the disbursement of training funds for workers through the pre-employment card to late March as part of its broader efforts to cushion the economy from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Adrian Wail Akhlas and Riska Rahman, Jakarta – Stocks traded on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) hit circuit breaker upon opening on Friday, plunging 5 percent to 2016 levels as global stocks suffer a historic rout driven by fears over the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Adrian Wail Akhlas, Jakarta – The government is speeding up the disbursement of training funds for workers on top of announcing individual and corporate tax breaks, as well as relaxing import restrictions to cushion the economy from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jakarta – Finance Minister Sri Mulyani said the government had prepared a budget of Rp 1 trillion, or around $70 million, to be channelled through the Health Ministry to try to contain the Covid-19 outbreak and care for patients already infected with coronavirus.

Nur Yasmin, Jakarta – Deputy Trade Minister Jerry Sambuaga said his ministry will closely monitor prices of food and basic supplies as long as the Covid-19 outbreak lasts in order to keep them under control.

Tara Marchelin, Jakarta – The government has to find an immediate solution for the deficit suffered by the national health insurance agency, or BPJS Kesehatan, after the Supreme Court annulled a presidential regulation issued to double its tiered premiums, a lawmaker said on Thursday.

M Rosseno Aji, Jakarta – The National Commission on Human Rights or Komnas HAM has urged the government to widely expose data about the new coronavirus or COVID-19 infection cases in Indonesia since the public requires valid information to eschew baseless news.

Budiarti Utami Putri, Jakarta – State Intelligence Agency (BIN) deputy V, Afini Boer, said that the agency has mathematically predicted when the coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic will hit its peak in Indonesia. The agency claims it will take place 60-80 days after it was first announced on March 2.

Jakarta – A whistleblower in a corruption case was made suspect in tax fraud by the Attorney General. A muddled method of law enforcement.

Len Garae – An urgent meeting between the Executives of United Liberation Movement of West Papua (ULMWP) and Vanuatu Free West Papua Association (VFWPA) in Port Vila yesterday, has expressed outrage over the seeming silence by Jakarta to respond to the Pacific Islands Forum and ACP calls for Indonesia to allow the UN High Commissioner for Human Right into West Papua, to see firstha

Yuliasri Perdani, Jakarta – The family of a COVID-19 patient in Jakarta has said the patient was initially rejected by a hospital and underwent a sluggish screening process before testing positive for the virus.

The patient's son said that the slow process and poor response from the Jakarta Health Agency and hospitals had left him frustrated.

Tuti Nurkhomariyah, a journalist with RMOL Lampung, was verbally assaulted by Lampung's governor, Arinal Djunaidi, at a press conference on March 3. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its affiliate Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) call on the Lampung official and others in his office to respect journalists undertaking their professional duties.

Beritasatu, Jakarta – The government on Friday provided some details on new tax breaks issued as part of a fiscal stimulus to prop up the economy during the coronavirus pandemic, saying that only some types of business in the manufacturing industry would be eligible for the $1.6 billion economic stimuli.

Adrian Wail Akhlas, Jakarta – Indonesia's stocks dropped sharply at Thursday's opening as anxious investors left markets across the world, poised for another day of tumultuous trading after the World Health Organization (WHO) announced coronavirus (COVID-19) a new pandemic.

Adrian Wail Akhlas, Jakarta – Workers in the manufacturing industry will not have to pay income taxes for six months as the government has announced measures to shield the economy from weakening economic activity against the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic.Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said the move to temporarily exempt manufacturing workers from income tax payment (

Made Anthony Iswara, Fadli, Asip Hasani, Markus Makur, Jon Afrizal and Apriadi Gunawan, Jakarta/Batam/Blitar, East Java/Labuan Bajo, East Nusa Tenggara/Jambi, Medan – From empty malls to factories disruption, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is dealing a hard blow to Indonesia's regional economy and small and medium enterprises around the archipelago.

Kusumasari Ayuningtyas, Sleman, Yogyakarta – Dutch King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima joined an interfaith discussion on religious tolerance, among other issues, during their meeting with members of the Indonesian Consortium for Religious Studies (ICRS) in Yogyakarta, Central Java, on Wednesday.

Adrian Wail Akhlas, Jakarta – Bank Indonesia (BI) has vowed to maintain the country's financial market stability amid expectations that economic growth will slow due to the COVID-19 spread.

Gemma Holliani Cahya and Marchio Irfan Gorbiano, Jakarta – With cryptic updates on the coronavirus situation and a refusal to reveal the nationality and location of the first fatality in Indonesia, the government has kept the public guessing about the invisible threat.

Panca Nugraha, Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara – Rabies has killed at least 15 people in West Nusa Tenggara's Dompu regency to date with more than 2,000 dog bites reported since the outbreak of the animal-transmitted disease began in the province last year.

Diana Mariska, Jakarta – Indonesia's chief security minister Mahfud M.D. said the government would continue to provide a special autonomy fund for Papua while preparing a new law to extend it.

Jakarta – Jiwasraya investments hit a bottleneck in the share's repossession of the Bakrie Group companies. The BPK should not cover up the results of an audit investigation.

Budiarti Utami Putri, Jakarta – President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo reportedly gathered leaders of his coalition parties at State Palace last Friday, March 6.

According to the United Development Party secretary-general Arsul Sani, the president discussed drafts of the job creation omnibus law and the coronavirus transmission during the session.

Protests against the Draft Omnibus Law on Job Creation have also come from international labour organisations. Trade unions affiliated with the International Trade Union Confederation Asia Pacific (ITUC-AP) are urging the Indonesian government to scrap the draft law which has already been submitted to parliament.

Asip Hasani, Agustinus Hari and Markus Makur, Blitar, Manado and Manggarai – The Indonesian Health Ministry has recorded a total of 17,820 cases of dengue fever since January this year, with at least 104 cases that turned fatal nationwide.

Asip Hasani, Surabaya – A pastor at a Protestant church in Surabaya, East Java, has been named a suspect for allegedly sexually abusing a minor, the East Java police confirmed on Thursday.

The 50-year-old man, identified by the initials HL, is currently in police custody and has undergone a psychological examination at the East Java police headquarters.

Jakarta, CNN Indonesia – Indonesian Human Rights Watch Imparsial is warning the government that military training for civilians in the Reserve Component (Komcad) will create new problems, one of which is horizontal conflicts between communities.

Narno, Jambi – On March 11 at least 500 people from a number of student and labour organisations held a protest action in Jambi, South Sumatra, to oppose the Draft Omnibus Law on Job Creation or RUU Cilaka.

Arya Dipa, Bandung – Hasan Sadikin Hospital in Bandung, the largest hospital in West Java province, has been flooded by people asking its staff to issue them a "COVID-19-free certificate", despite the fact that the document does not exist.

"There is no such thing. It is not permitted," the hospital's president director, Nina Susana Dewi, said on Wednesday.

Jakarta – Due to the limited availability of personal protective equipment (PPE) such as hazmat suits, medical personnel from a state-owned hospital in Tasikmalaya, West Java were forced to wear disposable plastic raincoats when transporting patients under observation for COVID-19.

Ivany Atina Arbi, Jakarta – The Papua Legal Aid Institute (LBH Papua) has urged the government to deploy Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) personnel to restive areas of Papua to provide assistance to tens of thousands internally displaced people forced to flee their homes due to conflicts between the military and the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB).

Marchio Irfan Gorbiano, Jakarta – The government plans to enlist the help of universities and other institutions to address the COVID-19 outbreak, which has officially been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization.

Nurdin Tubaka, Ambon, Indonesia – Activists in Indonesia have called on police to drop criminal charges against two indigenous men who took part in a confrontation against a company accused of illegally logging their ancestral forest.

Adrian Wail Akhlas, Jakarta – Indonesia plans to relax restrictions on importing goods as one of its fiscal measures to combat the harmful economic effects of the COVID-19 coronavirus.

Jayapura – The public prosecutor failed to present any witnesses during the fourth court hearing at the Sorong District Court on March 12 in a case related to anti-racist protest in Papua. The hearing was marked by a protest action by activists from the Justice Concern Forum for Monkeys who stood in front of the court building covering their mouths with masking tape.

Kiki Siregar, Jakarta – The circumstances surrounding the confirmation of Indonesia's first death linked to COVID-19 on Wednesday (Mar 11) has revealed what may be a lack of coordination among various agencies handling the outbreak.

Beritasatu, Jakarta – Former Sports Minister Imam Nahrawi is being investigated by the Corruption Eradication Commission, or KPK, on Tuesday for allegedly updating his WhatsApp status from behind bars.

Jakarta – At least 12 endemic species of trees in the country are threatened with extinction, a researcher at the Indonesia Institute of Sciences (LIPI) Research Center for Biology has said.

Jakarta – Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan has decided to postpone the much-anticipated Formula E electric motorsports championship, which was initially scheduled to take place on June 6, as the city grapples with the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak.

Marchio Irfan Gorbiano, Jakarta – Indonesia reported its first death from the coronavirus on Wednesday, a 53-year-old COVID-19 patient and foreign citizen identified as Case 25.

The Health Ministry's disease control and prevention director general Achmad Yurianto said Case 25 died at around 2 a.m. on Wednesday after nearly three days of receiving treatment.

Jakarta – Bank Indonesia (BI) is holding a National QRIS Week event across Indonesia to promote cashless transactions among small businesses using its Quick Response Indonesia Standard (QRIS) code system.

Agustinus Hari, Manado, South Sulawesi – A Constitutional Court ruling in 2017 ordering the government to recognize indigenous native faiths and put them in the religious column on identity cards has been celebrated by many traditional religion believers, including those of the Malesung faith of North Sulawesi.

Jakarta – Some international schools in Jakarta are closing their doors in an effort to protect students and teachers from the COVID-19 coronavirus, which continues to spread globally.

By Tuesday, Indonesia reported eight more patients had tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the total of confirmed cases in Indonesia to 27.

Nedi Putra, Jon Afrizal, Asip Hasani, Suherdjoko, Blitar/Semarang/Malang – As many as 500, 60-milliliter bottles of hand sanitizers with 96 percent alcohol content are now produced every day by students of Prajnaparamita State Vocational School in Malang, East Java.

Gisela Swaragita, Jakarta – Indonesia's second-largest Islamic organization has officially entered the national battle against the coronavirus by establishing the Muhammadiyah COVID-19 Command Center (MCCC) and putting an aptly named physician, Corona Rintawan, in charge.

Jakarta – One person has died of dengue fever in South Sumatra, while up to 562 have been infected since the beginning of the year, the South Sumatra Health Agency has reported.

The health agency's disease prevention and control department head Muyono said that the death occurred in January in North Musi Rawas regency.