Epidemiologist Calls COVID-19 Cases Twice As Recorded

ILLUSTRA TION / VOI

JAKARTA - Epidemiologist from the University of Indonesia's (UI) Faculty of Public Health, Tri Yunis Miko Wahyono, said the increasing number of COVID-19 infections in Indonesia is currently twice as high as recorded cases.

Miko said that the cases recorded at the Ministry of Health are currently only 50 percent of the actual situation.

Meanwhile, the remaining 50 percent are people who are infected but do not realize it because they have no symptoms but still infect others.

"The proportion of asymptomatic people (OTG) who were not tested and recorded cases was 50:50. So, imagine if there are 14,000 cases per day reported, that means there are 28,000, double the number of people exposed," Miko said. VOI, Thursday, June 24.

Miko is worried about the spread of the corona virus if the government does not carry out a strategy to handle COVID-19 properly.

The government has indeed implemented a micro-lockdown or quarantine on a small scale in RT or villages that have high COVID-19 cases. However, according to Miko it was not effective.

"The lockdown at the village or RT level is not appropriate, why not the sub-district or even the district. Because, if the lockdown is only on a small scale, the spread of the virus has widened," said Miko.

According to him, the purpose of the lockdown is to stem the mobility of people which causes high transmission in an area. The problem is, there are people who are infected with COVID-19 but they don't know.

"Imagine if OTG is a source of transmission. There will be leaks everywhere because 50 percent of these OTGs are not recorded," he said.

Miko admitted that his party had submitted this presentation to the central government. "I have given this information to the Ministry of Health, Mr. Coordinating Minister Airlangga. But this depends on the government's decision to respond to it," he added.