"We certainly do not have to hurry, because we are still in the transition process to normalization," she remarked.
"Endemic does not mean that cases no longer exist because, as we know, to make a disease disappear requires a long time, even hundreds of years," she said.
Currently, Indonesia is still at pandemic status, based on a number of indicators stipulated by President Regulation No. 24 of 2022 on Determining COVID-19 Pandemic Factual Status in Indonesia.
Within the regulation, there are a number of indicators that show that the pandemic in Indonesia has not yet been brought under control.
"We know that the case count is still high with around 9 thousand confirmed cases," Tarmizi noted.
"In essence, we observe that the several reproduction number indicators are still above one per thousand population," she added.
In addition, the positivity rate, or the comparison between the number of COVID-19 positive cases and the number of tests conducted, is still above five percent.
Meanwhile, not all regions have returned to Level 1 Public Activity Restriction (PPKM) status—a level that would indicate the pandemic situation is under control.
"Generally, level status occur within a certain time length, for instance, six months. When many indicator trends show positive result, this means that we are ready to head toward endemic (phase),” she informed.
During the event, Tarmizi reported the development of COVID-19 cases in Indonesia. Within the last three weeks, there has been a decline in the number of new cases in all provinces, she noted.
"For the death count, there are still several provinces that experience an increase," she highlighted.
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The provinces include Aceh, North Sumatra, West Sumatra, Jambi, Bengkulu, and several others.
In addition, the national testing rate has remained above one per thousand population per week, with weekly positivity rate above 13 percent.
"Positivity rate above 5 percent still happens in 29 provinces. Meanwhile, bed occupancy rate for patients treatment above 30 percent occurs in East Nusa Tenggara, North Kalimantan, and Yogyakarta," Tarmizi added.
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Translator: Andi Firdaus, Fadhli Ruhman
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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