Local Transmission COVID-19 Cases Soar High, Transmission In Jabodetabek Dominate

PIXABAY ILLUSTRATION

JAKARTA - Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Bisar Pandjaitan revealed that the increase in COVID-19 cases has now again been dominated by local transmission.

As is known, since the Christmas and New Year's 2022 holiday period, the daily cases of COVID-19 were dominated by foreign travelers who came or returned to Indonesia.

"Cases caused by foreign travelers are already under 10 percent of the total national cases. From this it can be concluded that local transmission in Indonesia has dominated more than the previous time," Luhut said at a Community Activity Restrictions (PPKM) evaluation press conference, Monday, January 24

In addition, Luhut revealed that the daily cases of COVID-19 over the past week, specifically in Java and Bali, continued to increase. The effective reproduction rate (Rt) of COVID-19 in Java has reached 1 and in Bali it has been more than 1.

The trend of the positivity rate or the percentage of positive cases from the number of specimens examined also increased. Although overall, PCR and antigen, the positivity rate is still below the WHO standard of 5 percent, but the PCR positivity rate has increased to 9 percent.

"Based on the data we have collected, cases in Java-Bali dominate the daily increase. We identify the increase in Java-Bali still coming from an increase in the Jabodetabek agglomeration area," said Luhut.

However, Luhut emphasized that the government still has full control in dealing with the Omicron variant of COVID-19.

Luhut said that since the Omicron variant was discovered one month ago in Indonesia, today there are no signs of an exponential increase in cases like what has happened in other parts of the country.

"The increase in cases is relatively under control. The number of confirmed and active daily cases is still lower by more than 90 percent when compared to Delta's peak cases," he said.