Jakarta. Two patients diagnosed with the Omicron coronavirus variant have died while being treated at the hospital, marking Indonesia’s first known fatalities from the highly contagious variant, the Health Ministry announced on Saturday.

“One patient of the locally-transmitted case died at Sari Asih Hospital in Ciputat and another patient who just returned from an overseas trip died at Sulianti Saroso Infectious Disease Hospital in Jakarta,” Siti Nadia Tarmizi, a spokeswoman for the ministry, said in a statement.

She said both patients had underlying conditions when they were admitted to the hospital.

She earlier said that the vast majority of Omicron patients in Indonesia displayed mild symptoms or were asymptomatic.

Indonesia has recorded a total of 1,161 Omicron cases since the first cases were confirmed in mid-December, 83 more from the tally in the previous day.

There has been a surge in new Covid-19 cases in the last four weeks, including 3,205 cases in the past 24 hours, government figures show.

Saturday’s figure is the highest daily tally since September 21.

Overall, there have been 4.28 million Covid-19 cases including 144,206 deaths in Indonesia since the pandemic began.

The total number of active cases stands at 16,692.