Capital's Pandemic Situation Improves, Governor Anies Calls on People to Obey Health Protocols

Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan announced an update pandemic situation in Jakarta which has shown a downward trend based on the decline in daily Covid-19 cases in less than a month. Since the last two months, active cases rose exponentially until reaching its peak on July 16, which was 113,137 cases, but the number has now dropped to 9,881.

This pandemic is not over yet, that's why we keep trying to suppress the rate of transmission

"Mostly, the decline of daily cases took longer than the increase. Alhamdulillah, the positive cases has decreased to below 10,000 in less than a month since the peak of the second wave (in early July 2021)," he expressed, as quoted by Jakarta PPID's press release, Saturday (8/15).

He explained that the peak of daily new cases was on July 12 with more than 14,000. Now, just a month later, it has dropped to 1/14 of it. It was also due to the tight supervision during PPKM Level 4 throughout the Jakarta area through the Regional Leadership Communication Forum (Forkopimda) and regional apparatuses.

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Based on the data from the Faculty of Public Health, University of Indonesia regarding the value of the Effective Reproduction Number (Rt), the last calculation showed exactly 1.0, which means that in this indicator the pandemic in Jakarta can be said to be slowing down. However, the public should adhere to health protocols and reduce mobility.

"This means that the pandemic is sloping down, but not yet maximal, but there is still a risk of rising again if mobility activities in Jakarta are high again. Surely it has to be watched out for. The downward momentum of Rt must continue," he explained.

The drop in daily cases and the rate of transmission had a significant impact on reducing the burden on health facilities. As of August 12, isolation bed occupancy in hospital was 33% and ICU was 59%. When the second wave reached its peak, the capacity had been pushed up, as it kept pace with the increasing number of patients. This is the importance of holding new cases and active cases. This is not because of a limited number but there is a limit.

"Seeing this, the capacity for Covid-19 patients was again lowered to give room for the care of non-Covid-19 patients. If not, the hospital discharge rate can be lower than 33% and 59%," he added.

He went on to say that it took contribute to prevent the deaths of more people so as to make the death rate had tended to fall. Since mid-June, the number of funerals rose rapidly to a peak on July 10, which was about 400 corpses every day. As for the death rate had reached the range of 200 every day yet it has fallen to the range of 40.

"But the number is too high so we have to push it to the lowest point. This pandemic is not over yet, that's why we keep trying to suppress the rate of transmission," he stressed.

Along with that, the Jakarta administration is also consistently pushing the number of tests many times higher than the WHO standard. At the peak of the second wave, the number of tests in Jakarta even reached 24 times the WHO standard. The need for tests decreased when the situation improved, the number of tests in Jakarta was still maintained high, which was in the range of a dozen times the WHO standard.

This high number of testing and tracing provides valid data on the level of positivity or the proportion of the number of people detected positive compared to the number of people tested. The high level of positivity is one indication of the severity of the pandemic rate in a region. The condition is that the tests must exceed WHO standards, thus the positivity level is deemed valid.

At the peak of the second wave, the positivity rate in Jakarta had reached 48%. That means, of the 2 people who were tested in Jakarta, one of them was Covid-19. It is a very high level of positivity for Jakarta, which has never happened before except in the early days of the pandemic when the number of tests was still very small. But now, its positivity has fallen below the maximum threshold of 10%. However, efforts must still be made to keep it below the ideal threshold, which is 5%.

"Don't be careless, be complacent, and rush to move freely, but you must continue to be vigilant, to follow health protocols, to reduce mobility, and immediately get vaccinated for those who haven't," he stated.

At the end of the presentation, he explained related to the development of vaccination in Jakarta which also plays an important role in controlling the pandemic. Up to August 14, vaccination rates had reached 8.9 million for the first dose and 4.1 million for the second dose. This means, the first dose has been reached 100%, and the second dose has been reached 46.8%.

He uttered that this achievement could not be separated from the active role and collaboration of the Jakarta administration with all parties. Hence, he appreciated and thanked those involved for vaccination and mobility control, as well as people who were disciplined in following health protocols and reducing their mobility during PPKM.

"Thank you to the Ministry of Health for continuing to provide vaccine stock support to Jakarta. Also with the army/police and the Attorney General's Office who work closely with us to intensify vaccination, including the private sector," he said.

"It shows that we can contain the pandemic if we are disciplined and collaborate, take care of and help each other. So, allow me to express my deepest gratitude to so many parties who have allowed the control of the second wave of the pandemic in Jakarta to run well so far," he closed.