The Most Detected Cases Of COVID-19 In North Sulawesi Are Actually Detected In Hospitals

JAKARTA - The North Sulawesi Provincial Government Health Office stated that the most cases of positive COVID-19 patients in the area during August-September 2022 were detected in hospitals.

"There is 70-80 percent detected in hospitals," said Head of the Surveillance and Immunization Section of the North Sulawesi Regional Health Office, Mery Pasrong, in Manado, Friday, October 7.

This means that these cases have symptoms and or come to health facilities for treatment and are screened through passive surveillance in hospitals with RDT Antigen testing and or PCR.

"This condition provides an epidemiological picture of the transmission of COVID-19 in the community because activities outside the home are quite high," he said as quoted by Antara.

This transmission, he said, could occur at the family level, birthday events, wedding events, other thanksgiving events, in offices and public places.

This, according to him, will get out of control even more if the health protocols begin to be ignored, especially the use of masks and full-dose vaccination coverage and low boosters.

"It is necessary to increase tracing to close contacts and treatment (handling) according to standard operating procedures or SOPs," he said.

If the patient is self-isolating, he said, it can be monitored by the village/kelurahan level COVID-19 handling task force, while close contacts are carried out by PCR testing and quarantine.

In August, the accumulation of positive confirmed cases of COVID-19 was 584 people, while in September 946 people.