Jakarta (ANTARA) - Jakarta reported a significant fall in COVID-19 deaths on Wednesday (July 21, 2021), spokesperson for the COVID-19 task force, Prof. Wiku Adisasmito, said.

"DKI Jakarta as of yesterday showed a significant decline, from 268 to 95 deaths in a day," he informed while delivering a statement to reporters via video conferencing in Jakarta on Thursday.

However, Adisasmito said, the level of compliance with social distancing in 30 percent of DKI Jakarta's urban areas is still regretfully low.

"In DKI Jakarta, Central Java and Banten, more than 30 percent of the villages or sub-districts are not complying with social distancing," he noted.

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Adisasmito said the death rate in Java-Bali has tended to increase over the past week, so it should be used to reflect on performance improvements.

"Moreover, for six days in a row, the death toll has reached more than one thousand people every day," he pointed out.

Adisasmito said the current district/city level risk zoning covering 180 districts/cities has been the largest amid the pandemic. This zoning is dominated by districts/cities from the province of East Java (33), Central Java (29), and West Java (21), he informed.

Meanwhile, positive cases, active cases, and daily bed occupancy rates have declined, he added.

The increase in recoveries must be maintained, he said.

That way, the risk zoning of regions which are currently in the red zone can immediately improve and they can move to the orange and yellow zones, he explained.

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Vice President Ma'ruf Amin had earlier asked regional administrations to make sure that their enforcement level of public activity restrictions (PPKM) does not rise.

"Once we know the level, I ask (for those) with lowered level to not let it be upgraded again," he said in a statement issued on Thursday, a day after he held a video conference, which was attended by East Java Governor Khofifah Indar Parawansa as well as all district heads, and city mayors across the province.

During the video conference, which was also joined by officials from the East Java COVID-19 Task Force, Amin stressed that regions must try to gradually reduce the level of their PPKM to the lowest level.

"Those at Level 4 must gradually downgrade bit by bit to Level 3, then to Level 2. Not the other way around, like Level 3 upgraded to Level 4," he elaborated.

Amin also urged regional governments to continue coordination with regard to regional COVID-19 handling.

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Translator: Andi F, Azis Kurmala
Editor: Suharto
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