COVID Task Force: End Of January Positivity Rate Only 1 Percent, Now Soaring Very Sharply

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

JAKARTA - Government Spokesperson for Handling COVID-19, Wiku Adisasmito, said that the weekly positivity rate rose sharply, by 17.61 percent as of February 20, 2022.

"The weekly positivity rate as of February 20, 2022, is 17.61 percent. It's a sharp increase from the weekly positivity rate at the end of January which was only around 1 percent", said Wiku at the Press Conference on the Development of Handling COVID-19 in Indonesia as of Thursday 24 February 2022.

Wiku said that even though Indonesia had managed to maintain the positivity rate below the 5 percent standard set by the World Health Organization (WHO) for 135 consecutive days. From 17 September 2021 to 29 January 2022.

In fact, Indonesia had reached the lowest positivity rate on December 12, 2021, which was 0.09 percent. However, this figure has now risen sharply, although it is still much lower than when it was in the Delta variant.

“In the Delta wave, the positivity rate can stay above 20 percent for five consecutive weeks. In fact, we have also achieved the highest weekly positivity rate of up to 30.24 percent on July 18, 2021", said Wiku.

Furthermore, if you look at the number of people who were tested for COVID-19 as of February 20, 2022, more than two million people have been tested in a week. Much higher than at the time of the Delta wave which was only around one million people.

“Furthermore, the tests that are currently being carried out are still dominated for screening purposes. It can be seen from the high proportion of antigen compared to PCR. Meanwhile, during the Delta wave, the proportion of testing tends to be balanced", he said.

Wiku emphasized that all parties must remain vigilant, considering that the upward trend in the weekly positivity rate has not shown any signs of decline. This shows the high potential for transmission in the community.

Likewise, travelers who are found to be positively infected with COVID-19 when going through the screening process or activities such as mobility are mostly carried out by the community. Showing awareness of health protocols in Indonesia is still relatively low.

Wiku appealed to all parties to remain disciplined in carrying out health protocols. Everyone has a responsibility to protect others, especially vulnerable groups such as the elderly, co-morbidities, children, and people who have not been vaccinated.

“Keep it in mind! economic recovery must be carried out safely. Unsafe community productivity has the potential to cause a spike in cases, which actually reduces economic performance", said Wiku.