Jakarta: Indonesian Health Minister Terawan Agus Putranto has said Indonesians should keep praying to God to ensure the country remains free of Covid-19 and defended his country's handling of the outbreak against international criticism.

Indonesia has seen just 104 people tested for the virus in a nation of about 270 million people. Terawan cited "efficiency in budgeting" as an explanation for why the country had not conducted further tests.

Meanwhile Marc Lipsitch, a Professor of Epidemiology at Harvard University and co-author of a paper that suggested it was statistically improbable there were zero coronavirus cases in Indonesia, said the researchers were not "picking" on Indonesia.

Terawan had attacked the study's findings for "insulting" Indonesia, but Lipsitch said the authors were simply "trying to figure out how many cases are being detected and missed" and pointed out that other countries, including Cambodia, had also been highlighted in the study.