Through His Spokesperson, Luhut Denies 2 Million Cases Of COVID-19 That Have Not Been Recorded Because They Are Covered

Illustration (Pixabay)

JAKARTA - The Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment (Menko Marves) who is also Deputy Chair of the COVID-19 Handling Committee Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan said there are still two million cases of COVID-19 that have not been recorded in the national data on handling the pandemic.

However, the Spokesperson for the Coordinating Minister for Marves, Jodi Mahardi, said that these two million cases were not positive case data that was covered up. He claims, this data comes from negative cases that have not been reported because many laboratories are more concerned with reporting positive cases of COVID-19.

"Actually, it is not the two million positive cases that have not been submitted, but there are many negative test results that are delayed to be reported by the laboratory because the number of tests is large and the entry personnel (data, ed) are limited, the laboratory tends to report positive results first so that it can be followed up immediately," said Jodi in his written statement to reporters, Saturday, February 6.

He considered that there were several parties who seemed to have misunderstood Luhut's intentions when holding a virtual meeting with epidemiologists on Friday, February 5. Because, at that time, Luhut said that the two million data would have an effect on reducing the positivity rate.

"So when the data is integrated and entered, the positivity rate will also drop because there are indeed many negative case data that are delayed to be reported beforehand. So it means that there are no positive cases that are covered and what is feared a surge will not happen," he said. explained Jodi.

Furthermore, he did not deny that currently data is still a problem in handling COVID-19. So, to solve this problem, the COVID-19 Handling Task Force focuses on integrating the management system so that the data submitted can be more factual and real.

In addition, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Luhut is also trying to encourage the realization of big health data that accommodates and integrates various health data sources, such as electronic medical records, BPJS Kesehatan, vaccines, and so on.

"Indeed, this is a common homework. But Coordinating Minister Luhut sees this pandemic as the right momentum for the government to improve our database system, not only in the health sector, but also others. So that in the future we can have a good data management system," he concluded. .