COVID-19 Is Indeed Sloping, But Not All Regions Have Case Reproduction Rates Below 1

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JAKARTA - Secretary of the Directorate General of Public Health of the Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) Siti Nadia Tarmizi said that currently the average reproduction number of COVID-19 cases is at number 1.

In a sense, every single case has the potential to transmit COVID-19 to one person. This reproduction rate decreased following the decreasing trend of cases.

"The average reproduction rate in all islands in Indonesia is at number 1," said Nadia in a virtual press conference, Wednesday, April 20.

However, Nadia said the Ministry of Health was still not satisfied with the condition of this reproductive rate. This is because not all regions have a reproduction number of 1 or less than one.

Based on data per island owned by the Ministry of Health, only Sulawesi and Maluku have a reproduction rate of 0.9; then Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan, and Papua are in number 1; while Bali and Nusa Tenggara are at 1.01.

"This is not the number we expected. The reproduction rate must decrease from less than 1 so that we can continue to suppress the transmission rate, which means that transmission of the virus to other people becomes rarer if the number is less than 1," said Nadia.

Furthermore, currently the occupancy of isolation and treatment beds at the COVID-19 referral hospital or (bed occupancy rate) BOR has decreased to 3.12 percent.

"This is a figure below the specified standard of 10 percent," he said.

The percentage of positive cases has also continued to decline, less than one percent, yesterday it was 0.76 percent below the WHO regulation of 5 percent.

"With the downward trend of the COVID-19 pandemic, we hope that we can continue to suppress the number of case transmissions so that they can be controlled even further, as in our condition from September to December 2021," he added.