Indonesian Covid-19 Transmission Decline in Last Two Weeks

Jakarta, MINA – Indonesian Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said the rate of Covid-19 transmission in Indonesia had begun to decline in the last two weeks, even though the positivity rate is still high.

The positivity rate in Indonesia has exceeded 30 percent in recent days, or much higher than the pandemic control standard set by the World Health Organization (WHO) of 5 percent.

However, according to Budi, the high positivity rate was not caused by the increased transmission rate.

“Both positive confirmed cases and patients admitted to hospital since the last two weeks have dropped,” Budi said in a virtual press conference on Wednesday.

He said the positivity rate was high because the number of RT-PCR tests for the past four days had decreased due to the Chinese New Year holiday. This pattern always occurs every long holiday.

Meanwhile, the trend of decreasing cases has been seen since two weeks ago and is also evidenced by the decrease in the number of patients requiring hospitalization.

The trend of daily positive cases began to decline after increasing significantly due to the long holiday at the end of last year.

Budi said Indonesia has passed the peak period of transmission due to the impact of the long holiday.

“Also the impact of implementing restrictions on community activities (PPKM) after the Christmas and New Year holidays, thereby reducing the rate of transmission,” he continued.

Even so, Budi said Indonesia’s positivity rate on normal days was still high because it was in the range above 20 percent.

However, this figure does not predict the true situation of transmission.

It is because many hospitals and laboratories only send positive case data and do not provide negative examination results to the central government due to a complicated reporting system.

In addition, there is a possibility that the positivity rate is still high because the number of tests carried out is still insufficient and not yet proportional to the number of infections that occur.

The government plans to use rapid antigen tests to speed up testing and contact tracing.

“With the extent of the examination target, it is hoped that the existing positivity rate will better reflect the real situation,” said Budi. (T/RE1)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)