COVID-19 Patients At Jakarta Hospital Increase, Peak Of Arcturus Wave Cases Predicted To Happen Next Week

JAKARTA - The DKI Jakarta Health Office (Dinkes) revealed the development of the Jakarta COVID-19 case a week after the 1444 Hijri Eid Al-Fitr.

Head of the Epidemiological and Immunization Surveillance Section of the DKI Jakarta Health Office, Ngabila Salama, revealed that currently, the bed occupancy ratio (BOR) in hospitals has increased from the previous week by 11 percent.

"The COVID-19 situation in Jakarta is very under control even though the number of positive cases has increased, the hospital BOR has risen in the past week to 16 percent," Ngabila said in a short message, Tuesday, May 2.

Last week, weekly positive cases in Jakarta were 2,662 cases. This week, weekly positive cases were 3,482.

The main cause of the increase in cases in Jakarta at this time is the transmission of the subvariant COVID-19 case of Arcturus. The first case of the XBB.1.16 subvariant emerged by foreign travelers who had just returned from India on March 23, 2023.

"The trend of cases is still increasing. The peak prediction (of the Arcturus wave case) next week or six weeks from the Arcturus variant was first detected on March 23," said Ngabila.

Along with the increase in cases, the percentage of positive cases from the number of specimens examined or the positivity rate also increased.

Last week, the COVID-19 positivity rate in Jakarta was 23.88 percent and this week it was 24.76 percent. This figure is a drastic increase from the positivity rate in early January which was still 2.75 percent.

"The positivity rate has increased sharply indicating that many cases are not diagnosed in the field," he said.

Meanwhile, there have been 16 deaths of COVID-19 cases over the past week. Of the 16 deaths, all aged 30 years and over. A total of 10 of them have not even been vaccinated against COVID-19 at all.