Update On COVID-19 As Of July 20: Examination Of Specimens Every Weekend Less Than Normal Figures

Government spokesman for the handling of COVID-19, Achmad Yurianto (Photo: Doc. Task Force)

JAKARTA - Government spokesman for the handling of COVID-19 Achmad Yurianto (Yuri) explained that there were an additional 1,693 confirmed positive cases as of Monday, July 20 at 12.00 WIB. The total number of positive cases became 88,214 people.

Yuri said, specimen examination based on swab tests every Sunday did not run optimally. This is because many private hospital laboratories have a holiday on weekends.

"Every Sunday there are 61 laboratories outside the Ministry of Health's laboratory network that are off, so we can examine 14,027 specimens," said Yuri at Graha BNPB, East Jakarta, Monday, July 20.

Meanwhile, the daily specimen examination on weekdays currently has reached more than 20 thousand. This is because currently the government has a target of examining 30 thousand per day.

Then, Yuri stated that the number of patients who died per day increased by 96 people, so that it became 4,239 patients. There were an additional 1,576 patients recovered, bringing the total to 46,977 patients.

Yuri said that currently the government has eliminated the use of the terms patient under surveillance (PDP) and person under surveillance (ODP). Now, the term used is suspicion group.

"Our monitoring of suspected cases has reached 36,380 people," said Yuri.

The province with the highest number of new cases today is DKI Jakarta with 361 new cases and a total of 16,899 cases. Then, Central Java with 354 new cases and a total of 7,286 cases.

Then, the provinces with other high new cases are in East Java with 237 new cases and a total of 18,545 cases. East Java is the province with the highest case accumulation in Indonesia.

Furthermore, the high number of new cases was also in South Sulawesi with 125 new cases and 8,164 total cases, Gorontalo with 105 new cases and a total of 537 cases, and North Sulawesi with 64 new cases and a total of 1,962 cases.

Of the 34 provinces that reported, there were 16 provinces reporting new cases under 10. Of these provinces, 7 of them reported that today there were no additional new cases.

"Provinces that report no new cases are Bengkulu, Jambi, West Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan, Riau Islands, Central Sulawesi and Lampung," he said.

Furthermore, the total number of specimens that have been examined has accumulated as many as 1,235,545. In detail, 1,205,619 specimens were examined using real time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and 29,926 specimens were examined using a molecular rapid test (TCM).

This examination was carried out in 320 network laboratories, with details of 158 RT-PCR laboratories, 138 TCM laboratories, and 24 RT-PCR laboratories as well as TCM. The rate of positive cases was 12.2 percent of all examinations carried out.

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