COVID-19 Jakarta Rises, Epidemiologists Say It Does Not Reflect The Increased Contagion Of DKI Residents

Illustration (Pixabay)

JAKARTA - The condition of COVID-19 in DKI Jakarta Province began to creep up in early 2022, after previously being quite under control.

However, according to an epidemiologist from the University of Indonesia, Pandu Riono, that the current increase in COVID-19 cases does not reflect an increase in transmission of residents of the capital city.

This is because, based on data from the DKI Health Office, the majority of the new COVID-19 cases recorded were travelers who came from abroad.

"Carefully reading the statistics, most of the reported COVID-19 cases are the result of screening from residents who travel from abroad. It does not reflect the increase in transmission in Jakarta residents," Pandu said on his Twitter account @drpriono1, quoted on Friday, January 7th.

Meanwhile, regarding the increase in cases of the Omicron variant in Jakarta, Pandu said this has not burdened health services either. So, he asked the public not to worry too much about the appearance of Omicron.

"There's no need to panic with Omicron when you can handle Delta," he said.

Carefully read the statistics, most of the reported Covid-19 cases were the result of screening from residents who traveled from abroad. Does not reflect increased transmission in Jakarta residents. pic.twitter.com/exEFM99Rnd

— Plague Slayer (@drpriono1) January 6, 2022

As is known, DKI Jakarta Province began to show an increasing trend of COVID-19 cases in the first five days of 2022. This was recorded in the data collection of the DKI Health Office.

On December 31, 2021, there were 87 new cases of COVID-19 in DKI. Then, on January 1, 2022, it started to rise with the addition of 121 new cases. On January 2, there were 103 cases added.

Then, there were 172 new cases added on January 3, 115 new cases added on January 4, 259 new cases on January 5, and 267 new cases on January 6.

Likewise with the addition of cases with detection of the Omicron variant in the capital city. It was noted that as of January 2, there were 13 detected Omicron cases, 12 Omicron cases on 3 January, and 90 Omicron cases on 4 January.

Head of the DKI Health Office, Widyastuti, revealed that new cases and active cases in the capital city are currently dominated by travelers who come from abroad.

"It should be underlined, from this increase, 73 percent of active cases and 81 percent of daily new positive cases in Jakarta are foreign travelers," said Widyastuti.