Three Reasons Anies Extends PSBB Until July 30th

DKI Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan (Photo: DKI Jakarta Public Relations)

JAKARTA - DKI Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan has extended the transitional PSBB period for 2 weeks until 30 July. Anies has 3 indicators which are the reasons for the extension of the transitional PSBB.

First, Anies looked at the positivity rate indicator or the percentage of positive cases divided by all people who underwent polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and molecular rapid tests (TCM).

"If 1,000 people are tested, 50 positive people are found, then the positivity rate is 5 percent. The ideal figure from WHO (World Health Organization), the positivity rate is below 5 percent," said Anies at the City Hall of DKI, Central Jakarta, Thursday, July 16th.

During the last 5 weeks at the beginning of the transitional PSBB period, the weekly positivty rate in Jakarta was 4.4 percent in the first week, respectively, 3.1 percent in the second week, 3.7 percent in the third, 3.9 percent in the fourth, and the fifth. , 8 percent. However, in the last week, DKI's positivity rate increased to 5.9 percent.

"It means we have to be more vigilant. Even so, this 5.9 percent figure is still below the national average, which is around 12 percent," said Anies.

The second indicator is the capacity of special COVID-19 treatment beds. Currently, the bed occupancy capacity of 659 intensive care units (ICU) for patients with severe symptoms has decreased from 31 percent to 25 percent.

However, there has been an increase in the capacity of COVID-19 isolation beds at 60 referral hospitals in the past week, increasing from 34 percent to 45 percent. This means that the number of patients with severe symptoms treated in the ICU has decreased, but the number of patients with mild and moderate symptoms has increased.

"This happens because our puskesmas team is doing active case finding aggressively and coming to the community to come to a gathering place for activities to do tracing and testing," said Anies.

"So, those who have no symptoms or mild symptoms are found to have COVID-19. Therefore, they must be isolated or if they are at risk they must be treated," he added.

The third indicator is the reproduction rate (Rt). Rt is the rate of transmission of one person who tests positive and transmits it to others. If the number of Rt is 1, then 1 person will infect 1 other person.

According to Anies, in recent times, the Rt figure has always been below 1. However, now it is 1.15 as of July 12th.

"Because now we are above 1.15, it indicates that there is a movement of transmission speed. Therefore, we must be extra vigilant," he said.

"So, from the 3 components, it will be very risky if we relax the transition phase 1 PSBB and enter phase 2. Therefore, we in Jakarta decided to extend the PSBB again," added Anies.