COVID-19 Cases In 10 Provinces Show A Declining Trend

ILLUSTRA TION BY VOI

JAKARTA - Confirmed cases of COVID-19 in 10 provinces as of Wednesday, February 23 continued to decline and as of Thursday the number of patients being treated in hospitals was still being handled well without any increase.

"The government's efforts to handle and prevent COVID-19 are to reduce the risk of death for the population due to COVID-19 infection," said Spokesperson for COVID-19 Vaccination at the Ministry of Health, Siti Nadia Tarmizi in a written statement quoted by Antara, Thursday, February 24.

He explained that there were six provinces whose cases fell after passing the daily number of cases in the Delta wave, namely DKI Jakarta, Banten, Bali, Maluku, Papua and NTB.

Meanwhile, four provinces entered the case-slowing phase as of Wednesday, February 23 after previously equaling or even exceeding the Delta case, namely East Java, West Java, South Kalimantan and West Papua.

The downward trend in daily cases was also followed by a downward trend in the positivity rate in the past week.

As of Wednesday, February 23, DKI Jakarta, Banten, Bali, NTB, Maluku and Papua showed a downward trend in the postivity rate. Meanwhile, West Java, East Java, South Kalimantan, and West Papua recorded a decline in the positivity rate.

In addition, the occupancy of COVID-19 isolation and intensive beds has continued to remain at 38 percent since Sunday, February 20 until today.

"Until Wednesday (23/2), the number of hospital inpatients for COVID-19 patients per week was 9.02/100,000 population. This figure is still very adequate compared to the peak of patient care during the Delta wave on July 17, 2021, which reached 33, 69/100,000 residents," said Nadia.

Likewise, the trend of the weekly case fatality rate (CFR) as of 22 February 2022 also decreased 6.61 percent from the previous week.

National CFR per week is now at position 2.85. Death cases as of February 23 were at 227 per day, far less than the peak of deaths in the Delta wave of July 27, 2021, which recorded up to 2,069 deaths per day.

Meanwhile, as of Thursday, the first dose of vaccination has been given to 190,451,216 (91.45 percent) of the population and the second dose of vaccination has been given to 143,032,523 (68.68 percent) of the population.

Meanwhile, three-dose or booster vaccinations have been given to 9,460,949 (4.54 percent) of the population. Recent data from the Ministry of Health shows that full-dose vaccination reduces the risk of death by up to 67 percent. Meanwhile booster vaccination reduces the risk of death by 91 percent.

"Not only will we maintain the resilience of health care facilities, we will also continue to expand and accelerate national vaccination coverage to protect vulnerable groups," he added.

As of February 19, 2022, of the 2,484 patients who died from COVID-19, 73 percent had not been fully vaccinated. 53 percent of the patients who died were elderly and 46 percent had comorbidities.

"From the data that has been reviewed until February 19, the highest risk of death still occurs in patients who have not received complete vaccinations, the elderly, and who have comorbidities. The most comorbid found in patients who died was diabetes mellitus and even 21 percent of patients had comorbidities of more than one," said Nadia.