JAKARTA - The Ministry of Health reported that as many as five provinces in Indonesia experienced an increase in COVID-19 cases in the past week at a time when the national figure had decreased.
"Nationally, there has been an 18 percent decrease in confirmed cases compared to the previous week. However, there are several variants in each province," said COVID-19 Vaccination Spokesperson Siti Nadia Tarmizi, quoted by Antara, Friday, August 13.
Nadia said five provinces that experienced a 20 percent increase in cases in the past week include East Nusa Tenggara, Central Sulawesi, Aceh, Gorontalo and Bangka Belitung.
But on the other hand, said Nadia, the significant decline in cases in DKI Jakarta and West Java currently greatly affects the trend of increasing cases nationally.
Nadia said 'testing rates' and 'positivity rates' are indicators that cannot be separated. "Positive rates can only be interpreted if the test target showing that surveillance is adequate reaches the target of at least 1 person per 1000 population per week," he said.
'Testing rates nationally, said Nadia, currently reach 3.53 per 1,000 inhabitants per week with weekly positivity rates of 23.6 percent.
"Although we see a trend of positivity rates continuing to decline from the beginning of July 2021 at 30.1 percent and now it has reached 22.5 percent, however, transmission is still high and occurs evenly in all regions," he said.
Provinces that have not yet reached the testing target are Aceh, Lampung, Central Java, Southeast Sulawesi, West Sulawesi and Maluku, said Nadia.
Nadia advised all regions to improve and maintain testing, especially for suspected cases and close contacts found.
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