VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Jakarta (VOI News) - Brazil firstly reported a Covid-19 case on February 26, 2020, when a 62-year-old male resident of Sao Paulo was diagnosed positive for the Covid-19 virus. The spread of Covid-19 in Brazil was so rapid that on 18 March 2020 the Brazilian government declared a state of emergency as the number of people exposed to the virus continued to increase. The Indonesian Ambassador to Brazil, Edi Yusup, in a special telephone interview with Voice of Indonesia in Jakarta on Friday (3/4), said that until now no Indonesian citizen in Brazil had been exposed to the Covid-19 virus. Edi Yusup added that the Indonesian Embassy in Brasilia established close communication through the whatsapp group and distributing 3 (three) hotline numbers to Indonesian citizens and Indonesian diaspora in Brazil.

"The Indonesian Embassy has also distributed hotline numbers that can be contacted 24 hours 7 days. We give 3 numbers that can be hotlines. In addition, because there are only small number of Indonesian citizens in Brazil, we have a whatsapp group, so there are 2 whatsapp groups, one whatsapp group for Indonesian citizens in Brazil and another whatsapp group for the Indonesian Diaspora in Bazil. And Alhamdulillah this whatsapp group is quite active, almost every day we always have communication through the whatsapp group. One thing for sure, is that the Indonesian Embassy in Brazil will try its best to serve and protect Indonesian friends in Brazil,"said Edi Yusup.

Ambassador Edi Yusup further said that up to 2 April 2020, there were 7,910 positive cases of the Covid-19 virus and 299 people had died. The percentage of mortality rate is still low namely at 3.8 percent. The largest spread of Covid-19 is in the city of Sao Paulo, followed by Rio De Jeneiro and Brasilia. (VOI / ANI)