JAKARTA (INDONESIA) -The powerful earthquake that struck Indonesia’s Sulawesi island last week has killed 81. The country’s disaster mitigation agency has informed that more than 19,000 have been displaced. Rescue efforts continued on Monday.
Disaster mitigation spokesman Raditya Jati said in a statement on Monday that 81 people were confirmed to have died, while more than 250 had been seriously injured.
There was also significant damage to hundreds of homes, a mall, a hospital and several hotels.
A string of disasters hit the Southeast Asian archipelago in recent weeks.
With thousands displaced, authorities were also taking extra efforts to curb the spread of the COVID among evacuees, including by conducting rapid antigen tests, the official said.
Aside from the earthquake, the suffered a plane crash on Jan. 9 that killed 62 people as well as a deadly landslide in Java and the eruption of the Merapi and Semeru volcanoes.
And President Joko Widodo was due to fly to the province of South Kalimantan on Borneo island on Monday to view flood damage after at least 15 people had died following weeks of torrential rains.
Indonesia is regularly hit by earthquakes and other natural disasters as it lies in the Pacific Ring of Fire. The country’s meteorology agency has warned of aftershocks in Sulawesi, along with the risk of extreme weather and other flood dangers in the coming weeks.