Community Transmission Rates High

KOMPAS/ADITYA DIVERANTA

An information board for the total positive cases of DKI Jakarta\'s Covid-19 daily is plastered at a pharmacy in Rawa Belong Village, Palmerah, West Jakarta, Monday (11/23/2020) afternoon. The information stated that there were an additional 1,342 positive patients based on data as of November 22, 2020. Until now, at the end of May 2021, the transmission of Covid-19 was still high in DKI Jakarta.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS — New COVID-19 clusters that have emerged in residential areas show high community transmission rates. Mass tracing is necessary to break this transmission chain so that cases do not continue to grow and overwhelm health facilities.

“Clusters in residential areas show that COVID-19 has spread among families. This was mainly triggered by gatherings during the recent holiday season,” said University of Indonesia Faculty of Public Health epidemiologist Iwan Ariawan on Thursday (27/5/2021).

The emergence of residential area clusters also indicated people’s lack of compliance with health protocols. At the same time, there has been local transmission of several new and more contagious variants.

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Iwan added that COVID-19 vaccination coverage had so far not been able to effectively prevent transmission.

“Vaccines may be useful in reducing the mortality rate, but they cannot reduce the transmission rate. The [vaccination] coverage is still too small, especially since the vaccines have not been administered to the general public yet,” Iwan said.

A number of residential area clusters have been detected. The clusters include neighborhood unit (RT) 003 community unit (RW) 003 in Cilangkap, Cipayung, East Jakarta, and RT 004 RW 002 in Srengseng Sawah, Jagakarsa, South Jakarta. There are also clusters in the Griya Melati housing complex in Bubulak, Bogor, West Java; Ngaglik village in Sleman, Yogyakarta; and in Bangungalih village in Kramat, Tegal, Central Java.

KOMPAS/KRISTI DWI UTAMI

Bangungalih Puskesmas, Kramat District, Tegal Regency, Central Java. In this area, 23 residents who live close by are exposed to Covid-19. Two of them died.

Dicky Budiman, an Indonesian epidemiologist at Australia\'s Griffith University, explained that community transmission had the highest transmission rate of infectious diseases. “I’m afraid that only a small proportion of the transmission in residential areas has been found so far because, in most areas, especially outside Java, the testing capacity is still very limited,” he said.

The emergence of new transmission clusters has contributed to the high daily confirmed COVID-19 cases in Indonesia. Based on data from the national COVID-19 task force, 6,278 new cases were confirmed on Thursday (27/5), the highest figure seen in the last 20 days.

Peak in June

The analysis of data based on previous holidays in the country so far shows that [the increase in new confirmed] cases will peak six to seven weeks after the peak of people’s mobility.

Deputy Health Minister Dante Saksono Harbuwono said the trend of positive COVID-19 cases had begun to increase a week after the recent Idul Fitri holiday. Cases were recorded to be up 32.01 percent. A spike was also recorded in the country’s mortality rate, which rose by 5.8 percent.

“The analysis of data based on previous holidays in the country so far shows that [the increase in new confirmed] cases will peak six to seven weeks after the peak of people’s mobility. The increase, therefore, will begin to occur this week, from May 23 to 28, and will peak in mid-June,” Dante said during a hearing with House of Representatives Commission IX in Jakarta.

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He said the increasing trend of new confirmed cases needed to be followed by mass testing and tracing. The capacity of most provinces, however, is still limited.

Of the 34 provinces in Indonesia, only one has a moderate level of close contact tracing capacity, with up to five to nine contacts traced from one confirmed case. This province is North Sumatra. The other 33 provinces can trace fewer than five close contacts per case on average. According to Dante, such a condition will be improved by deploying community health center (Puskesmas) personnel.

DOKUMENTASI FORKOPIMDA KOTA BOGOR

Bogor City Health Office officers carry out a swab test on residents in the Bubulak Family, West Bogor, Tuesday (19/5/2021). In this sub-district, 26 residents were confirmed positive for Covid-19.

Not over yet

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, when giving direction to regional leaders in West Java at Bogor Palace on

Thursday, asked for improved COVID-19 handling so that the regional economy would improve.

“The President said the threat was not over. The President reminded regional heads in West Java and the Regional Leadership Communication Forum [Forkopimda] not to let their guard down so that a surge like the one that occurred in India would not occur in Indonesia,” said Bogor Mayor Bima Arya at Bogor City Hall.

Therefore, Bima continued, the President had asked regional heads and Forkopimda to focus on indicator data, including the bed occupancy ratio (BOR) and the positivity rate, which are closely related to the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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To prevent the further spread of COVID-19 in Bogor, Bima said, he would try his best to enforce micro-scale public activity restrictions (PPKM Mikro).

Cirebon is the only area in West Java that is currently designated as a red zone, or an area with high infection risk. The Cirebon government has also increased the city’s COVID-19 testing and monitoring of health protocol enforcement.

In Sumatra, the Riau Islands provincial administration has accelerated COVID-19 vaccination in the outer islands by assigning five vaccinators to each subdistrict. The target is that 50 percent of the population will have been vaccinated by the end of June 2021. (AIK/TAN/GIO/NDU/IKI)