The Anomaly In The COVID-19 Death Rate, The Ministry Of Health Said It Was Influenced By The Delay In The Local Government Report

Illustration of a COVID-19 funeral. (Source: ncr-iran.org)

JAKARTA - The anomaly in the death data from COVID-19 in Indonesia is influenced by the delay in local governments in updating reports, said an official from the Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) of the Republic of Indonesia.

"The high number of cases in the previous few weeks has prevented regions from entering or updating data into the Ministry of Health's National All Record (NAR) system," said Head of the Communications and Public Service Bureau of the Indonesian Ministry of Health, Widyawati, in a written statement, as quoted by Antara, Wednesday, August 11.

According to Widyawati, the deaths of COVID-19 patients in the past week to a month in the area have accumulated and have only been reported to the Ministry of Health.

As a result, said Widyawati, the Ministry of Health released the daily death rate due to COVID-19 which tends to be high in the last three weeks. The provinces of West Java, Central Java and East Java have the largest contribution to the death rate at the national level.

Widyawati said the delay in reporting updates from the regional government (Pemda) was due to limited health personnel, in inputting data when there was a spike in COVID-19 cases in the region a few weeks ago.

"We will continue to see an anomaly in the death toll, at least for the next two weeks," he continued.

The Ministry of Health, said Widyawati, appreciated the local government for updating the data as soon as possible.

"Of course this does not reduce our enthusiasm to continue to race to deliver transparent and 'realtime' data to the public," he continued.

Meanwhile, the Indonesian Ministry of Health Expert, Panji Fortuna Hadisoemarto, said that more than 50 thousand active cases are currently cases that have been recorded for more than 21 days, but the data has not been updated.

"We are currently confirming the status of more than 50 thousand active cases. So, in the next few days there will be an anomalous spike in mortality and recovery rates in reporting the development of COVID-19 cases. However, this will actually make our reporting even more accurate. ," said Panji.