VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The National Task Force for COVID-19 Response claimed on Thursday that the government's efforts over the past six months to fight the COVID-19 pandemic and curb infections have yielded fruit.

The government's efforts have included the issuance of a policy on using a zoning system to designate and control regional response, spokesperson for the task force, Prof. Wiku Adisasmito, said in reply to a journalist's question during a press conference at the Presidential Office here on Thursday(3/9).

Zoning refers to the disaster system, which classifies regions into red zones to represent areas with high risk, orange zones to represent areas with moderate risk, yellow zones to represent areas with low risk, and green zones to represent unaffected areas, he elaborated.

"The government also has increased the number of testing laboratories from one to more than 300 across Indonesia," he said.

Meanwhile, the number of referral hospitals, both at the national and provincial levels, has swelled to more than 800, he pointed out.

As a result, the percentage of active cases nationwide has declined to 23.64 percent of the total cases in August, 2020 from 91.26 percent in March, he noted.

"The mortality rate has also dropped to 4.47 percent in August, after reaching its peak of 8.64 percent in April, 2020," he added.

Likewise, the national recovery rate has also jumped to 72.17 percent of the total cases in August, 2020 from just 3.64 percent in March this year, he said.

In terms of innovation, the government has encouraged the production of local personal protective equipment and other medical devices using raw materials that are completely sourced from local suppliers, and in compliance with international standards, such as AATCC 42, ISO, and ASTM, Adisasmito said.

Other innovations include locally-made ventilators that have successfully undergone clinical testing and reusable face masks, which have a filtration capacity comparable to surgical masks.

Indonesia has recorded 3,622 new COVID-19 cases within the last 24 hours, which have pushed the total case count to 184,268, the task force reported on Thursday.

Meanwhile, with 2,084 people recovering from COVID-19, the total recoveries have reached 132,055.

The death toll has climbed to 7,750, with 134 additional people succumbing to the virus.

The figures suggest that the country currently has 44,463 active cases, or patients still receiving treatment or undergoing self-isolation.

On Thursday, the authorities examined 37,597 specimens from 19,306 people at 220 laboratories across the country. A total of 2,388,865 specimens from 1,353,291 people have been examined since the country reported the first COVID-19 cases in March, 2020.

The authorities have also recorded 84,071 suspected cases, who are currently under surveillance.

COVID-19 positive cases have been found in 34 provinces, with 488 cities and districts reporting infections.

On Thursday, five provinces recorded the highest number of new cases, with Jakarta reporting 1,359 new infections, East Java 377, Central Java 242, West Java 238, and Bali 174 cases. (ANTARANEWS)