The COVID-19 Task Force Affirms The Low Positivity Rate Is Not Because The Number Of Tests Has Decreased

Spokesperson for the Task Force for Handling COVID-19 Wiku Adisasmito (ANTARA)

JAKARTA - A Spokesperson for the Task Force for Handling COVID-19, Wiku Adisasmito emphasized that currently, the positivity rate or percentage of positive results from specimen examination is decreasing.

In the first week of January, the weekly positivity rate was 22.9 percent. Then, in the first week of February, it rose slightly to 29.34 percent.

Then, in the first week of March, it fell to 20.64 percent again. In the fourth week of March, it was 13.53 percent and in the fifth week of March, it fell to 11.22 percent again.

According to Wiku, the decrease in the positivity rate was not due to the low number of tests, but indeed the transmission of COVID-19 in the community was quite low.

"The low level of transmission of COVID-19 in the community is due to the reduced rate of transmission and not because of the low number of cases. This is good news that must be addressed wisely", said Wiku in a YouTube broadcast of the Presidential Secretariat, Thursday, April 1.

Wiku explained that the government is serious about increasing the national testing rate. This is reflected in the testing numbers that have again touched the global ideal standard in the second week of March until now.

According to the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO), testing is 1 in 1000 people or 267.000 Indonesians per week.

Wiku presents a weekly COVID-19 testing figures chart. On average, testing in the week from early January to late March exceeds the WHO recommended amount. However, there were two weeks of substandard testing figures.

"In relation to that, this graph also shows that with a fairly good number of testing recently, the number of positive cases detected has actually decreased", said Wiku.

"So it can be concluded that although there will be challenges to consistently apply above-standard testing, there are continuing efforts not to allow a decrease in the number of tests from one week to the next", he continued.