Although the total number of confirmed cases in Jakarta is quite high, the daily increase is very low over the past seven days
Jakarta (ANTARA) - The capital city Jakarta recorded very low fresh confirmed COVID-19 cases over the past week, Head of the Data and Information Center of the Ministry of Health Didik Budijanto stated.

"Although the total number of confirmed cases in Jakarta is quite high, the daily increase is very low over the past seven days," Didik Budijanto noted during a speech delivered virtually by the Task Force for the Acceleration of COVID-19 Response at the BNPB Graha Office here on Saturday.

However, he pointed to other provinces -- Aceh, Maluku, North Sumatra, and Gorontalo -- still registering a high percentage of additional cases in the past week.

Death rate due to COVID-19 in Jakarta was lower than that in East Java a week back. North Sulawesi Province clocked the highest COVID-19 case fatality rate in the past seven days.

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The nationwide recovery rate surpasses the death rate.

"This demonstrates that we are getting more mature and better in providing services," Budijanto pointed out.
Government’s spokesperson for COVID-19 Response Achmad Yurianto noted that the government will boost the mechanism of tracing infected people and conducting tests, especially in regions susceptible to the spread of the novel coronavirus disease.

"Hence, tracing should be increased in the provinces where the addition of new cases is still quite high, and testing should then be conducted on a more massive scale. This cannot be generalized for every province because the problem is different," he stated.

Yurianto said his office was currently focusing more on COVID-19 tests in East Java, South Sulawesi, and South Kalimantan.

According to Yurianto, the task force in these provinces will further review the concentration of districts or cities where further tests are needed, and of course, based on contact tracing.

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Translator: Martha HS, Fardah
Editor: Sri Haryati
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