VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Prof. Wiku Adisasmito, spokesperson for the Covid-19 Task Force said that the percentage of active cases from March to August is going downward.

"From March to August it gradually decreased. In March, the average active case was 91.26 percent, continued to decline in April to 81.57 percent, May 71.53 percent, June 57.25 percent, July 44.02 percent, and in August active cases in Indonesia decreased to 23.64 percent," he said during a press conference in Jakarta, on Wednesday.

Active cases of COVID in Indonesia as of 1 September 2020 were 42,009 cases or 23.7 percent. While the world average is 26.67 percent. This means that the figure in Indonesia is still classified as lower than the average figure in the world.

According to him, this gradually improving condition must be maintained, so that active cases in Indonesia continue to decline every month until the Covid-19 pandemic completely disappears.

In line with active cases, the development of Covid-19 patient death cases nationally has also gradually decreased every month.

September 1 data, there were 7,505 cases of death with a percentage of 4.2 percent.

Meanwhile, Wiku said the mortality rate was peaked in April.

Judging by the graph, in March the average was 4.89 percent, then in April it doubled to 8.64 percent, then in May it decreased to 6.68 percent, in June it was 5.56 percent, July was 4.81 percent and August fell again to 4.47 percent.

"Although the percentage of national mortality rates has experienced positive changes, the magnitude is still above the world average (3.32 percent). This is what we must fix together so the national mortality rate can be reduced to below the world average," he said.

The recovery rate per month is also improved. The number of recovered patients as of September 1 was 177,571 cases. There is a very fast rate of increase in March-August, higher than the world average of 70 percent.

In March, the average recovery rate was 3.84 percent, then more than doubled in April to 9.79 percent, continued in May 21.97 percent, and increased again in June 37.19 percent, on July 49.40 percent and as of August 30, 2020, the recovery rate reached 72.17 percent.

For the level of positivity rate, Indonesia shows an increase every month. In June it was 11.71 percent, up in July 14.29 percent and August 15.43 percent.

"The positivity rate in Indonesia reached its peak on August 30 at 25.25 percent. The big challenge is to reduce the positivity rate to meet the safety standards recommended by the WHO by 5 percent," Wiku said.

According to the latest update on the risk zoning map, there are 65 high-risk districts/cities (red zone), 230 medium risk districts/cities (orange zone), 151 medium risk districts/cities (151 districts/cities, 42 districts/cities no new cases and 26 districts/cities are not affected or are included in the green zone.

When viewed from May until now, the high-risk area from 21.01 percent decreased to 12.65 percent.

Meanwhile, the risk area is medium from 32.30 percent to 44.75 percent. Then the low risk rose from 27.63 percent to 29.38 percent. Unaffected areas decreased from 19.07 percent to 13.23 percent.

Wiku added that increasing testing, tracing, and treatment is the key to accelerating the handling of Covid-19.

Innovations to protect medical personnel have also been carried out and use personal protective equipment (PPE), quality cloth masks, including 100 percent Indonesian-made ventilators.

"We have also been ordered by the president (Joko Widodo) to coordinate with regional leaders, to ensure that the handling of Covid-19 is carried out well and suppress the spread of the Covid-19 virus," Wiku said. (RRI)