Bad News, the Increase in COVID-19 Cases After Eid Al-Fitr Starts To Be Seen This Week

ANTARA/ Spokesperson of task force handling COVID-19 Wiku Adisasmito

JAKARTA - COVID-19 Handling Task Force Spokesman, Wiku Adisasmito, said there is now an increase in COVID-19 cases after the Eid al-Fitr holiday.

Nationally, COVID-19 cases in the past week rose by 36.1 percent from last week. In fact, last week there was a decrease in weekly cases up to 26 percent.

"This significant increase in positive cases occurred one week after the Eid al-Fitr holiday period", Wiku said in a Youtube broadcast of the Presidential Secretariat, Tuesday, May 25.

In fact, said Wiku, usually the impact of a long holiday can be seen in the second and third week after the long holiday period. Wiku said this condition is an alarm for all communities.

"This indicates that it has not reached the second-week alone cases have shown a significant increase. Even cases of death have increased", he said.

The increase in positive cases this week came from five provinces with the highest increase in positive cases, namely West Java rose 2,221 cases from last week, DKI Jakarta rose 1,240, West Sumatra rose 948, Central Java rose 948, and Aceh rose 561 cases.

Not only positive cases, but weekly deaths also increased by 13.8 percent from last week. The highest increase in deaths was in West Java up 41 cases, West Sumatra up 27, South Sumatra up 26, Aceh 24, and Central Java up 23 cases.

Wiku said the province that contributed greatly to the increase in positive cases and deaths is dominated by the province of homecoming and homecoming backflow.

"This situation needs to concern us together not only the government but also all levels of society that we should not be caught off guard mainly in the next few weeks in anticipation of the impact of the Eid al-Fitr holiday," he explained.

"This is only the first week since the Eid al-Fitr holiday period. In fact, mobility is also still high one week after Eid al-Fitr. This could have an impact on the potential for longer impacts from this holiday period until mid-June", Wiku added.

Therefore, Wiku asked all local governments to improve the readiness of hospitals and centralized quarantine facilities throughout the region.

"Make sure all resources and health workers are adequate and simultaneously continue to improve testing to residents who have traveled home for the past week so that cases can be handled as early as possible", he concluded.