New daily cases of Covid-19 have again reached a record high. Stricter restrictions on public activities are needed to bring the nationwide epidemic under control.
By
ANITA YOSSIHARA/SUTTA DHARMASAPUTRA/AHMAD ARIF
·5 minutes read
SEKRETARIAT PRESIDEN
Spokesperson for the Covid-19 Handling Task Force Wiku Adisasmito.
JAKARTA, KOMPAS – Covid-19 is spreading out of control, with the daily tally of new cases and Covid-19 deaths reaching a record high on Thursday and as the positivity rate rises and hospital beds begin filling up. Restrictions on community movement need to be tightened to prevent more victims to the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes the disease.
The spokesman of the Covid-19 Management Task Force, Wiku Adisasmito, said in Jakarta on Thursday that the number of new Covid-19 cases had increased by 3,861 on that day, bringing the cumulative total of confirmed cases in the country to 207,203. The daily increase in new cases, the highest to date, was obtained from the results of 20,314 tests. Among those tested, the positivity rate (the percentage of all tests returning a positive result) was 19 percent.
Of all confirmed cases, 147,510 people (71.2 percent) have recovered from the disease, while 8,456 people have died. This gives Indonesia a case fatality rate (CFR) of 4.1 percent, higher than the global fatality rate, which averages 3.24 percent.
In addition, as much as 65.56 percent of all regencies and cities in the country are classified as areas with moderate to high transmission risk. Of these, 70 regencies and cities have been categorized as red zones (areas with high transmission risk) and 267 regencies and cities have been categorized as orange zones (areas with moderate transmission risk).
Covid-19 has continued to spread farther afield as many people are still reluctant to comply with the health protocol when going out. For this reason, it is necessary to tighten enforcement of the health protocol, perform more polymerase chain reaction (PCR) swab tests and conduct more contact tracing. The capacity to treat Covid-19 patients at hospitals should also be increased. People must be called on to exercise more stringent discipline in adhering to the health protocol.
"The public health situation is deteriorating. We expect the President to prioritize public health and safety,” said Irma Hidayana, a public health researcher at Laporcovid19.org, an independent data site that groups together a number of community organizations.
Officials from the Center for Environmental Health and Disease Control Engineering check the nutritional content and prevent the presence of harmful substances in food that will be distributed to students in public kitchens in Kali Gesing field, Banyuwangi, Wednesday (2/9/2020). In a day, the volunteers provide 18,000 portions for the pesantren Darussalam Islamic boarding school students who were quarantined after the emergence of the Covid-19 transmission cluster there.
Regarding the decision of Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan to reinstate the large-scale social restrictions (PSBB), the Covid-19 national task force said it was the right step to lower the high infection rate in Jakarta. The capital city has been designated as a red zone for the last five consecutive weeks. The PSBB has also been reimposed in Banten province, the regency and municipality of Bekasi, and Bogor regency and municipality.
President Joko Widodo said that imposing social restrictions on a “micro scale” (individual communities) was the most effective way to manage the continuing increase in Covid-19 cases, because this approach took into account the characteristics and infection rate specific to each area.
"It is no longer possible to impose lockdowns at a national or provincial scale," the President said during a discussion with chief editors of select media at Bogor Palace. The micro-scale approach to implementing the social restrictions would involve the members of neighborhood units (RT) and community units (RW), or employees of the village development agency (Babinsa).
It is no longer possible to impose lockdowns at a national or provincial scale
Hospital capacity
Data from the Covid-19 task force also shows that the number of new cases continues to exceed the number of people who have recovered from the disease. New cases on Thursday recorded a figure that was 1,551 more than the 2,310 recovered patients recorded on the same day. As a result, the number of available hospital beds has declined.
In fact, the beds at the seven Covid-19 referral hospitals in Jakarta are occupied 100 percent. The bed occupancy rate for Covid-19 patients at the isolation wards and intensive care units (ICU) of 46 other referral hospitals has reached 60 percent.
"At 67 Covid-19 referral hospitals, the available beds in the ICU and isolation wards are at full occupancy,” said task force spokesman Wiku.
Residents exercising during the National Campaign Do Not Slack on Discipline on Wearing Masks, at the Gelora Bung Karno Main Stadium, Senayan, Jakarta, Sunday (30/8/2020). At this activity, masks were distributed free of charge to people who were exercising.
[The measures] must be stricter so it doesn’t spread further
According to epidemiologist Iqbal Elyazar of the Indonesian Young Scientists Forum, social restrictions must also be implemented in other areas based on the infection rate of each island in the archipelago.
"Due to the shortage of tests, especially in areas outside Jakarta, many infected people cannot be detected," he said.
The PSBB should also be imposed on areas with a high fatality rate, even though they may have recorded relatively few confirmed cases because of limited testing.
“[The measures] must be stricter so it doesn’t spread further,” said Iqbal.
The World Health Organization (WHO) situation report on Indonesia, published on 9 Sept., highlighted the limited amount of nationwide testing, which was still far below the minimum threshold of 1 test per 1,000 population per week.
The WHO also highlighted the high fatality rate among health workers. Indonesian Medical Association (IDI) spokesperson Halik Malik said on Thursday that two more doctors had died from Covid-19. Their deaths bring the total number of Covid-19 deaths among medical professionals to 109.
“In Jakarta, 1,276 health workers have tested positive for Covid-19,” he added.
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