Ridwan Kamil's Subordinates Have An Analysis Of Why West Java Always Experiences A High Increase In COVID-19

Illustration of the streets of Bandung (Photo by Aditya Enggar Perdana on Unsplash)

JAKARTA - West Java Health Office Head, Nina Susana Dewi, explained that the mobility between cities carried out by the community is the cause of the increase in COVID-19 cases in West Java.

"If we look at the movement of community mobilization in the Jakarta area and the surrounding area, it is very high. Indeed, in reality, like the residents of Depok, there are those who work in Jakarta and vice versa," said Nina in the zoominar 'Strategies for Facing the Third Wave of the Pandemic', Friday, February 18 quoted from Antara.

According to Nina, although the local government has intensively carried out mitigation, both through tracking and tracing cases, the mobility carried out by people between cities cannot be avoided due to various factors of need.

The spike in cases is also unavoidable even though a number of parties such as the Jaya Regional Military Command have helped intensify the expansion of the COVID-19 vaccination coverage in West Java Province.

"That's why, even though we have done optimal things, this mobility cannot be easily prevented. So that causes West Java to always be second after Jakarta," said Nina.

However, the mobility that occurs in every West Java city such as Bandung Raya cannot be generalized. Because conditions in Greater Bandung, more than 60 percent of the population comes from outside Bandung and creates very high movement conditions.

As a result, cases in the city are stable in experiencing an increase in cases.

"We admit that agglomeration is indeed not a joke, the increase (cases) in cities that are agglomeration is very fast," said Nina.

In line with Nina, Head of the Health Support Sub Division of the COVID-19 Task Force Brigadier General TNI Alexander K. Ginting said West Java was also one of the provinces with the highest positivity rate.

If you look at the Task Force's data regarding the positivity rate per province on February 16, 2022, West Java is included along with four other provinces, namely Banten, Central Java, North Sulawesi and DKI Jakarta.

Alexander also said that the areas that have the highest mortality and morbidity cases continue to revolve around the Java-Bali islands. Such as in East Java, West Java, Central Java, DKI Jakarta and Bali.

A province with such a high number, said Alexander, is an area that has a dense population and has good and adequate infrastructure. So the number of active cases found is quite high.

"So active cases in this area are quite high. Then there are deaths due to Omicron also in areas where vaccinations are quite high and for them the hospital infrastructure is good," he said.