Daily Cases Of COVID-19 Decline, Anies Says There Are No More Patients Treated At The Emergency Room

DKI Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan (DOK Public Relations of DKI Jakarta Provincial Government)

JAKARTA - DKI Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan said that currently the daily number of COVID-19 cases had begun to decline. Active cases in the capital also decreased by almost 50 percent from the condition 10 days ago.

"The number of active cases in Jakarta continues to decrease. Previously, we had reached more than 100 thousand, even on July 16, 2021, there were 113,000 active cases and yesterday our active cases had dropped to 64 thousand," Anies said in a Youtube broadcast. DKI Jakarta Provincial Government, Monday, July 26.

Anies said that the decline in active cases was consistent with a downward trend in several other parameters, such as the weekly positivity rate or the rate of positive cases per number of specimens examined.

"Our positivity rate, which was originally around 45 percent, is now in the range of 25 percent," said Anies.

The same goes for the COVID-19 death rate. Anies said the COVID-19 protocol funerals, which once reached more than 350 funerals per day, have now dropped below 200 per day.

Anies admitted that he had toured a number of hospitals and health centers in Jakarta, such as Budi Asih Hospital and Duren Sawit Hospital. In addition, he also monitors the condition of the hospital via CCTV.

He saw the difference in conditions before the implementation of Emergency PPKM with today. He said, there were no more patients queuing in the ER lobby to wait for the treatment room.

"The situation is much different from when we came in previous times. At that time, the hospital was very full, even the front hall of the ER was filled with queues of patients who were going to the ER. The queues for entering the ER were full, the ER was full, the hospitalization was full, the ICU is also full," said Anies.

"Well, now the corridors of the ER are empty, patients can go directly to the ER. There are only a few patients in the ER, and this situation can be seen in many hospitals in Jakarta," he continued.

However, Anies emphasized that the pandemic situation in Jakarta is not safe at all. This can be seen from the number of active cases which is still relatively high, which is still touching the figure of 64,000 active cases with a positivity rate of 25 percent.

"We have to be careful in interpreting it (the decline in the pandemic situation). The 64,000 active cases are still 2 times higher than the peak of the first wave last year. The 25 percent positivity rate is still far above the WHO ideal recommendation, which is below 5 percent," said Anies.

Even though the ER queue has dispersed, the ICU is still crowded, while the pressure is slowly easing. This means that this downward trend is clearly visible, but the situation for handling the pandemic is still far from ideal.

"So, it is very important that we continue and continue to push the momentum to improve this situation. The sequence is the ER queue, then the inpatient room, and the ICU. The ER queue has decomposed, hopefully the next one will be followed by easing of occupancy in inpatient rooms and ICU, "he concluded.