Kaleidoscope 2021: Two Spikes In COVID-19 Cases And Shadows Of A Third Wave

Ilustrasi-DOK VOI

JAKARTA - The condition of COVID-19 in 2021 has become unpredictable from the beginning of the pandemic in 2020. Indonesia's hopes of getting out of the pandemic with vaccination efforts have not been realized. In fact, the burden of dealing with the pandemic this year is heavier than last year.

In early 2021, the first spike in COVID-19 cases occurred in Indonesia. After the Maulid Nabi holiday period continued with Christmas 2020 and New Year's 2021, cases crept up to a peak on January 25, 2021.

This first spike in cases has been reduced for 15 consecutive weeks. The government exercises control by implementing Micro PPKM and Posko in each village or sub-district. At this time, the COVID-19 vaccination began to be injected into health workers and public service workers, followed by the general public.

Then, these policies contributed to the decline in cases by 70.5 percent from the first peak of cases and reaching its lowest point in mid-May.

The second spike started in July. This spike was caused by the entry of the Delta variant of COVID-19 which was given the opportunity to spread among the community through high mobility during the Eid period.

Unfortunately, the homecoming procurement policy is not sufficient in reducing population mobility at this time. As a result, cases jumped significantly to reach a peak of 1,200 percent from the lowest point in May in just 9 weeks.

The government also implemented various efforts to tighten mobility, ranging from emergency PPKM, tightening PPKM Micro, to PPKM leveling to suppress the spread of cases.

Thanks to the hard work of all parties, especially the active role of the community in reducing cases, the second spike was successfully handled and so far cases have fallen for 23 consecutive weeks since the second peak.

By the end of this year, COVID-19 cases had been reduced to 99.6 from the highest peak. This figure is much lower than the addition of positive cases in January, even lower than the period before the first spike.

Furthermore, if you look at the progress of recovering from COVID-19, the percentage of healing that was at the lowest rate, which was 79.28 percent, has been successfully increased again to 96.51 percent.

Then, this year, the daily death rate had reached its highest point in the second spike in cases, which claimed 2,048 lives in one day. Currently, as of December 30 yesterday, the number of people who died daily from COVID-19 after dropping drastically to 7 people in a day. In fact, the death toll had reached its lowest rate of 1 death a day on November 28.

At the end of 2021, when the pandemic conditions in Indonesia are more under control, it turns out that we are still overshadowed by the next spike in cases. The reason is the entry of the Omicron variant which has now also spread through local transmission

Until December 29, 2021, there were 21 additional confirmed cases of Omicron, which were foreign travelers. This brings the total number of Omicron cases to 68 people.

Based on WHO HQ. Enhancing readiness for Omicron (B.1.1.529): Technical Brief and Priority Actions for Member States on 23 December 2021, it was stated that the Omicron variant has faster transmission characteristics than the Delta variant in countries that have experienced community transmission.

While there is a possibility of a rapid increase in the number of cases due to Omicron, this is accompanied by lower rates of hospital or ICU bed use compared to the Delta period.