COVID-19 Deaths Are Still High, The Government Must Study In More Detail

JAKARTA - In the midst of easing various regions in PPKM leveling, it means that the COVID-19 condition is starting to improve. However, it must be remembered that the COVID-19 death rate is still high.

President Joko Widodo has instructed his staff to immediately identify COVID-19 cases who are self-isolating to undergo centralized isolation to avoid worsening conditions. Unfortunately, that's not the only solution.

An epidemiologist from Griffith University Australia, Dicky Budiman, considers the death rate to be important data because there are many factors behind it.

"The COVID-19 case fatality rate reflects the strategy from upstream to downstream, including the quality and quantity of intervention programs and support from many sectors", said Dicky to VOI, Wednesday, August 25.

The government, said Dicky, needs to examine in detail the causes of the high number of deaths. Based on his analysis, Dicky considered that many COVID-19 cases died as a result of not wanting to undergo centralized isolation when confirmed positive.

However, the solution taken by the government cannot be just bringing the patient into isolation. This is because they have other considerations not to follow isolation, one of which is economic needs.

"For example, there are patients who are reluctant to have centralized isolation, there could be the support that is not available. He is the backbone of the family. When he is in centralized isolation, who is looking for income? That must be considered," said Dicky.

Therefore, support to support the needs of the family of the isolated patient must also be considered by the government. "If there is no support, he will not want to. So that is why one death rate is valuable, very important, and should be a case study", he said.

Previously, the Spokesperson for the COVID-19 Task Force, Wiku Adisasmito, admitted that the number of COVID-19 deaths in Indonesia was still quite high. In fact, the death rate of COVID-19 cases in Indonesia is currently 3.2 percent. This figure is higher than the global COVID-19 death rate of 2.09 percent.

"The high number of deaths in Indonesia has caused Indonesia's rise to be the ninth highest cumulative death toll in the world", said Wiku on the Presidential Secretariat's Youtube video, Tuesday, August 24.

Wiku said, as of August 22, the number of weekly deaths in Indonesia was 8,784 cases, or still more than 1000 deaths per day.

Almost all provinces are still experiencing an increase in the number of COVID-19 deaths. The decline in the COVID-19 death rate this week was only in Central Kalimantan Province, which fell 0.03 percent.

Meanwhile, of the 33 provinces that experienced an increase in death rates, the highest was in Central Java with an increase of 0.32 percent, Lampung 0.3 percent, Gorontalo 0.3 percent, Bali 0.23 percent, and Bengkulu increased 0.17 percent.

"This shows that in general, the problem of national deaths due to COVID-19 is still an unresolved challenge", said Wiku.