ndonesia keeps on showing improvement in terms of the number of cases and handling of COVID-19 to date
Jakarta (ANTARA) - Jakarta recorded the highest daily addition of confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 2,060 people contracting the infection as of 12 p.m. local time on Thursday, the COVID-19 task force reported.



Jakarta was followed by West Java, which recorded 676 cases, Banten (472 cases), East Java (269 cases), and Central Java (145 cases), data from the COVID-19 task force received here on Thursday showed.



The new cases took the number of daily national COVID-19 cases to 4,039, bringing the total tally since March 2020 to 6,301,523.



Jakarta also recorded the most daily recoveries at 2,418, followed by West Java (982), East Java (441), Banten (324), and Bali (234).


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On the national scale, the daily recovery rate increased by 5,250, bringing the total count to 6,092,306. Meanwhile, 21 deaths were reported on Thursday—6 in East Java province; 5 in Central Java; 2 deaths each in Jakarta, Banten, and Bali; and 1 death each in Riau, South Kalimantan, East Kalimantan, and Aceh.



The COVID-19 task force said that the number of active cases—including COVID-19 patients undergoing treatment and self-isolation as of Thursday—stood at 51,900, a decline of 1,232 compared to the previous day (August 17).



In addition, the number of suspected cases was recorded at 4,680.


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These results were obtained based on the testing of 81,697 specimens from 35,325 people that were examined at hundreds of laboratories across Indonesia on Thursday.



The positivity rate for daily specimens was 9.59 percent, and the daily positivity rate for people was 11.43 percent.



Coordinator of the expert team of the COVID-19 task force, Prof. Wiku Adisasmito, said that the current COVID-19 situation in Indonesia is considerably better compared to last year.



"Indonesia keeps on showing improvement in terms of the number of cases and handling of COVID-19 to date," he noted.



This can be gauged from data comparing the COVID-19 situation on August 17, 2021, and August 17, 2022, which shows a 53-percent decline in daily positive cases this year, Adisasmito said.



This year, there were around 5 thousand daily cases, far lower than the 11 thousand cases per day recorded in 2021.


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Translator: Zubi Mahrofi, Mecca Yumna
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
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