Minister Of Health Budi Gunadi: Reduce Mobility, Stay At Home, God Willing, By The End Of February We Can Overcome The COVID-19 Pandemic

JAKARTA - Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin reminded the public not to panic and reduce mobility when there was a spike in COVID-19 cases. This is so that the pandemic can be contained immediately.

"Don't panic, don't get carried away, stay alert. If you're traveling to a city, reduce mobility," Budi said in a press conference broadcast on the Presidential Secretariat's YouTube, Monday, February 7.

If the community continues to take this step, Budi believes, the massive increase in COVID-19 cases can be suppressed immediately. So people are asked to be patient.

"Just stay at home. God willing, at the end of February we will be able to overcome the pandemic," said the former Deputy Minister of SOEs.

Currently, there are three provinces where the addition of cases has exceeded the highest peak when the Delta variant spreads. Due to the Omicron variant, Budi continued, there were 15,800 additional COVID-19 cases in DKI Jakarta.

In fact, at the peak of the Delta variant, the highest addition of cases reached 14,600. Apart from DKI Jakarta, there are two other provinces that have experienced the same thing, namely Banten and Bali.

In Banten, Budi continued, the addition of COVID-19 cases has now reached 4,800 and the figure has increased compared to the peak of cases due to the Delta variant which reached 3,900.

As for Bali, now the cases have reached 2,000 and this figure is higher than when Delta was 1,900 cases.

Despite the spike in cases, people are asked not to panic. Budi said the number of people who tested positive for COVID-19 and had to be hospitalized was still around 50 percent.

"The three provinces whose daily figures have exceeded the peak of the Delta, the number who are hospitalized is still around 30-50 percent," he said.

"So what I'm saying is that it's not over to panic if you see the high number of cases because those who enter the hospital and die are much lower and can be controlled," concluded Budi.