Positive Cases in Jakarta Above 4,000, City Reminds Citizens Not to Underestimate COVID-19

Number of COVID-19 cases in Jakarta has increased drastically. Recently, it has been in range 1,000-2,000 cases a day. However, on this Thursday (6/17), COVID-19 cases has jumped to 4,144 cases.

We urge people to remain vigilant of the increasingly rapid COVID-19 transmission and always implement 5M

Jakarta Health Agency's D isease Control and Prevention Division Head, Dwi Oktavia mentioned, based on data from Jakarta Health Agency, on June 17, 2021 PCR test has been carried out to 23,913 specimens. From that amount, 16,499 specimens have been tested using PCR today to diagnose new cases with total 4,144 positive and 12,355 negative results.

"If we look back, today's cases rate is approaching the highest rate on February 7, 2021 which reached 4,231 cases a day. Therefore, we remind all people not to underestimate COVID-19. It needs good cooperation to overcome this pandemic. We urge people to remain vigilant of the increasingly rapid COVID-19 transmission and always implement 5M anywhere and anytime," she stated as quoted from PPID Press Release, on Thursday (6/17).

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She also stated that trend of active positive cases in children under age 18 was increasing. As many as 661 of 4,144 positive cases (16%) were children aged 0-18 years, which 144 cases were children under 5 years. "Therefore, we remind residents to avoid leaving house with children," she conveyed.

From total 4,144 cases, in detail, 5 cases in Thousand Islands, 824 cases in West Jakarta, 490 cases in Central Jakarta, 932 cases in South Jakarta, 1,370 cases in East Jakarta, and 523 cases in North Jakarta. Sub-district with highest number of cases included Cengkareng with 205 cases, Duren Sawit 189 cases, Cipayung 177 cases, and Jagakarsa 172 cases.

Furthermore, number of active cases in Jakarta as of today increased by 2,300 cases bringing total active cases reaches 22,611 cases (including people who are still being treated/isolated). From that number, 25 percent were asymptomatic, 35 percent had mild symptoms, 30 percent had moderate symptoms, and 10 percent had severe and critical symptoms.

Number of confirmed cases in Jakarta to date reached 458,815 cases. Total 428,487 people were recovered and 7,717 people died with mortality rate 1.7%. While mortality rate in Indonesia reached 2.8%

Jakarta Government is still improving 3T, namely testing, tracing, and treatment to suppress COVID-19 spread in Jakarta. "If we look data from silacak.kemkes.go.id, Jakarta's tracking ratio in June is 7.9. It means that 1 positive case is traced within at least 8 close contacts. We also improve testing, where we improved it 10.8 times from minimum standard set by WHO for Jakarta as of June 16, 2021," she said.

Based on data as of June 17, in 139 hospitals that treating COVID-19 in Jakarta, from total 8,524 isolation beds, the occupancy rate reached 84%. While, 74% of 1,186 ICU beds, where occupied. Jakarta Government will also continue coordinating Central Government to prepare controlled self-isolation facilities in several locations, such as GORs and public houses.

She also informed rising cases in number of clusters in Jakarta. On May 21-June 17, there were 1,172 homecoming clusters with total 2,458 positive cases. Office cluster in this past week also increased from 64 to 227 positive cases. "We also advise people to reduce mobility, leave house only for important things, and work together to prevent increase of positive cases in the future," she added.

She appealed all communities to remain vigilant against new virus mutations that are mostly easily transmitted and causing more severe symptoms. Jakarta is actively examining Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS), where Jakarta Health Agency has sent total 980 samples of suspected virus mutation. 289 samples were informed not to be Variant of Concern (VoC), 33 were VoC, 438 were still waiting for results, 216 were negative for COVID-19, 3 WGS couldn't be analyzed, and 1 was invalid.

"We have received 33 VoC data from Health Ministry. From that data, we identified 25 cases are from people who have traveled abroad, 3 cases are local transmission from outside Jakarta because they were not domiciled in Jakarta, but only checked in Jakarta. There were 5 cases with Delta variant through local transmission in Jakarta. Total 33 VoCs consisted of 12 Alpha variants (B.117), 3 Beta variants (B.1.351), 18 Delta variants (B.1617.2)," she informed.

"Every time we meet VoC, we immediately identify whether it is import or local transmission case. If local transmission, we do massive tracing in community and workplace," she conveyed.

Meanwhile, vaccination process is still ongoing in Jakarta. Since June 9, 2021, Jakarta Government has accelerated vaccination, in which residents aged 18 years and over can be also vaccinated. Residents with DKI Jakarta ID cards, as well as work/school and domiciled in Jakarta, can register for COVID-19 vaccination through JAKI app or website corona.jakarta.go.id to avoid long queue at health facilities.

Target for first and second dose vaccination (health worker, elderly, and public servant) is 3,000,689 people. Currently, for Vaccination Program, first dose has now reached 3,133,277 people (103.01%) and second dose has reached 1,875,241 people (62.16%). While for Gotong Royong Vaccination program in Jakarta, first dose has been injected to 44,273 people and 6,902 people for second dose.

"Vaccination is proven not only to prevent COVID-19 transmission, but also to prevent severe symptoms or death for those who are exposed to COVID-19. So, vaccination is very important. Let us get vaccinated to protect ourselves and people around us," she closed.