Positivity Rate For COVID-19 In August Three Times The WHO Standard

Team of Experts for Task Force Handling COVID-19 Dewi Nur Aisyah (Photo: Doc BNPB)

JAKARTA - The expert team of the COVID-19 Handling Task Force, Dewi Nur Aisyah, stated that the percentage of positive cases (positivity rate) of COVID-19 at the national level during August was quite high.

Dewi said, the average positivity rate in August was 15.43 percent. In fact, the World Health Organization (WHO) has set a standard positivity rate of 5 percent.

"We see that there are still more and more infections in the community. It is currently 15.43 percent, three times higher than the target set by WHO," said Dewi at Graha BNPB, East Jakarta, Wednesday, September 2.

Dewi continued, the percentage of positive cases from all examined specimens in August was also the highest when compared to the last few months.

"In June, the positivity rate was 11.71 percent, July was 14.2 percent, and finally in August it rose 15.43 percent," explained Dewi.

He said, the positivity rate that occurred mostly came from patients who took the initiative to come to the hospital because they had symptoms of corona virus transmission.

Meanwhile, only a few regions have actively traced COVID-19 cases, both in the market, community and industry.

"Because the average positivity rate comes from people who come to the hospital, the figure may be more than 60-70 percent. That is why their positivity rate is approximately 15.43 percent," explained Dewi.

Furthermore, Dewi said that case finding from close contact tracing of patients who were previously infected had a higher risk of positivity than doing the test aggressively in one environment.

"When contacts are traced, it will be far from finding positive people, compared to trying to screen markets or malls, it will be easier to find positive people from patients who are already positive," said Dewi.