Covid-19 Cases Expand Outside Java and Bali

KOMPAS/JUMARTO YULIANUS

A banner containing an invitation to take part in the Covid-19 vaccination at Trisakti Port, Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan, on Wednesday (30/6/2021).

The spread of Covid-19 transmission outside Java and Bali needs to be addressed immediately. In addition to tightening restrictions on public activities, the capacity of health facilities must also be increased along with increased tracking.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS — Covid-19 cases continue to expand outside Java and Bali as the Delta variant dominates. Without stricter restrictions, the spike in cases in a number of areas will continue until the end of 2021.

An epidemiologist from the University of Indonesia’s School of Public Health, Iwan Ariawan, on Friday (6/8/2021) in Jakarta, said the situation of transmission outside Java, based on the onset model carried out by his team, continued to increase. "The level of PPKM [public activity restrictions] and vaccination coverage outside Java and Bali must be increased so that the curve decreases faster," he said.

Testing, tracking and treatment capabilities outside Java-Bali must also be improved to reduce transmission and the risk of death. Without stricter mobility restrictions and increased testing and tracking, the transmission curve outside Java and Bali will peak in mid-November 2021.

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Data from the Covid-19 task force show there were 39,532 new Covid-19 cases nationally on Friday (6/8), and there was a decrease in active cases of 10,935 people. This happened mainly because there was a decrease in cases in a number of areas on the island of Java. On the other hand, there was an increase in cases outside Java and Bali.

The biggest rise in daily new cases was in West Java with 4,580 new cases and 107,907 active cases. East Java recorded 4,490 new cases and 46,978 active cases. East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) added 3,598 cases and has 14,221 active cases. Provinces outside Java that also experienced a high number of cases were Riau, 2,205 people, North Sumatra (2,045), East Kalimantan (1,815) and Central Sulawesi (1,566).

KOMPAS/NIKSON SINAGA

A nurse feeds a Covid-19 patient at a hospital in Medan, North Sumatra, Monday (14/6/2021). The implementation of restrictions on micro-based community activities was tightened in Medan to suppress the increasing number of new cases.

The death toll increased by 1,635 and Indonesia remains the country with the highest additional death toll due to Covid-19 in the world. Most of the victims were recorded in Central Java with 440 people, followed by East Java with 380 people, and West Java with 107 people. East Kalimantan was the province outside Java with the highest number of deaths, namely 87 people, followed by South Sumatra 63 people and Riau 56 people.

An Indonesian epidemiologist at Griffith University, Dicky Budiman, explained that the spike in cases outside Java-Bali risked widening the gap between transmission in the population and the number of cases found. The reason is that the testing and tracing capacity outside Java is weaker. "The number of unrecorded deaths will be higher because many victims have not been tested," he said.Professor at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Indonesia, who is also a former director of Infectious Diseases of WHO Southeast Asia, Tjandra Yoga Aditama, said that Indonesia must conduct an in-depth analysis of various factors that cause fluctuations in the number of cases and examine patterns of mortality in the community with socio-epidemiological parameters.

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The government is also asked to evaluate through clinical-medical audits of deaths at hospitals and why the target of 400,000 tests per day has not been achieved, tracing is low and the vaccination target of 2 million doses a day has not been achieved.

KOMPAS/DIONISIUS REYNALDO TRIWIBOWO

The Covid-19 Task Force officer at Tjilik Riwut Airport, Palangkaraya City, Central Kalimantan examines the swab test document or RT-PCR of arriving passengers, Monday (19/4/2021).

A number of regions outside Java are preparing to anticipate a spike in cases. Wisma Haji haj dormitory in Lampung province, for example, has been prepared as an emergency hospital in line with the increasing number of Covid-19 cases in the province. Wisma Haji is targeted to operate in the second week of August 2021. Head of the Haj and Umrah Organizing Division of the Lampung Religious Affairs Office, M. Ansori, said Wisma Haji Lampung was prepared to accommodate around 200 Covid-19 patients.

Delta Variant

The head of the National Genome Center of the Eijkman Institute, Safarina G. Malik, said the spread of the Delta variant had been expansive, marked by the finding of more and more specimens. The Delta variant was found in 24 provinces. "In addition to the increasing number of regional cases, regions are also sending more samples for WGS [whole genome sequencing] analysis," he said.

Data from the Indonesian Genome Surveillance Network as of Aug. 5, 2021, shows that the Delta variant is most commonly found in Jakarta, from 425 specimens. The dominance of the finding of the Delta variant in Jakarta is mainly because the majority of WGS tests were carried out from specimens in Jakarta, namely 1,059 of the total 4,510 WGS performed in Indonesia.

In West Java, the Delta variant was found in 281 specimens, Central Java 191 specimens, and East Java 187 specimens. Outside Java, the most common Delta variant was found in NTT, namely 51 specimens.

KOMPAS/SAIFUL RIJAL YUNUS

Kendari Mayor Sulkarnain Kadir became the first person to receive the Covid-19 vaccine, at the Kendari Hospital, Southeast Sulawesi, on Thursday (1/14/2021).

Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister, Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, in Magelang city, Central Java, said the Delta variant of Covid-19 could not be underestimated because it could cause the patient’s condition to deteriorate quickly.

According to Luhut, the government aims to vaccine 70 million people per month in August and September 2021. Therefore, local administrations in Java and Bali must vaccinate 2.3 million people per day.

The president director of the Healthcare and Social Security Administering Body, Ali Ghufron Mukti, said this would increase the accuracy of data on residents who register for vaccinations.

Meanwhile, the civil registration number recorded in the Population Data and Civil Registry will be integrated with the data on the Covid-19 Primary Care Vaccination application. The president director of the Healthcare and Social Security Administering Body, Ali Ghufron Mukti, said this would increase the accuracy of data on residents who register for vaccinations. (TAN/AIK/ EGI/HRS/VDL/ VIO/ITA)

(This article was translated by Kurniawan Siswoko)