Jakarta. President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo said on Thursday Indonesians must come to term with the coronavirus outbreak as it will remain to stay until a workable vaccine is invented.

Despite government’s tireless efforts to contain the outbreak, the number of confirmed cases cannot go down to zero immediately, but they will continue to fluctuate, the president said.

"Chances are the number of cases will increase, and then go down and rise again and drop again. Until an effective vaccine is invented, we must come to term with Covid-19 for an unforeseeable future,” Jokowi said in a video statement from the State Palace in Central Jakarta. 

Indonesia has 12,776 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, up by 338 since Wednesday, according to the National Covid-19 Task Force.

The task force also reported 35 more deaths to bring the total death toll to 930 in yet another fluctuating trend. The daily deaths were put at 23 a day earlier and only eight on Tuesday. The country only counted Covid-19 deaths from confirmed cases based on lab specimen tests.

The number of patients who have recovered from the respiratory illness rose by 64 to 2,381 patients.

According to the data, probable cases in hospitals also increased by 1,576 to 28,508.

Jokowi said the government has preferred to impose a partial lockdown in certain areas rather than a total lockdown since the beginning of the outbreak to allow economic activities to continue at certain degrees.

People are allowed to leave their home but mass gatherings are strictly banned, he said.

"I need to reiterate that the most important thing is to strictly follow the health protocol," Jokowi said.

The president said earlier he wanted all resources to be directed to the fight against the outbreak and its mitigations measures, adding the peak should be reached this month.