VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The Indonesian Army mourned the death of former the Indonesian Army Commander General of the Indonesian National Army (ret) Djoko Santoso due to a stroke he suffered at the Gatot Soebroto Central Army Hospital (RSPAD), Jakarta, Sunday morning.As a form of final respect, the Indonesian Army flew a half-pole flag for one week from May 10 to 17, 2020, in all ranks of the Indonesian National Army throughout Indonesia. That was said by the Head of the Public Information Division of the Indonesian Army information center, Colonel Sus Taibur Rahman, in his written statement on Sunday.Meanwhile, Commander of the Indonesian Army Marshal of the Indonesian Army Hadi Tjahjanto presided over a military funeral ceremony for the former Indonesian Army Commander for the 2007-2010 period of the Indonesian Army (ret) Djoko Santoso at the San Diego Hills Public Cemetery (TPU), Karawang, West Java, Sunday.The funeral procession continued to follow health protocol standards to anticipate and prevent the spread of COVID-19. (Ant/trans by PUTRI)

In response to the world’s Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) warnings about a potential food crisis in the wake of the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, Coordinating Minister for Maritime and Investment Luhut Pandjaitan assessed that it will not arise in Indonesia in the near future. However, during a special interview with Radio Republik Indonesia (RRI) on Sunday, May 10, Luhut asserted that his side will ensure to maintain the stock and distribution. To anticipate a potential food shortage, he added, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo had held many meetings with related ministries. The Agriculture Ministry and the Maritime and Fisheries Ministry had also reported about the food stock. According to Luhut, micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) could drive the economy by distributing food. Therefore, he opined that this issue could not be dealt with from just one side, but it must be under consideration of other aspects as well//tempo

The Surabaya City administration has increased hospitals' capacity to treat patients of COVID-19 and prepared 265 hotel rooms for isolation of people under surveillance (ODP). The spokesman of Surabaya's Task Force for Acceleration of COVID-19 Handling M Fikser said on Sunday that the city has prepared at least 120 beds for the additional wards. The local government has also increased the capacity of local public hospitals (RSUD), by increasing  the number of wards in dr. M Soewandhie Hospital from  36 to 58 rooms. The city administration has also prepared 265 hotel rooms for isolation of residents who were just arrived from travelling abroad and those whose families were tested positive for COVID-19, as hospitals are overloaded with COVID-19 patients//Ant

Coordinating Human Development and Culture Minister Muhadjir Effendy (JP/Seto Wardhana)

Indonesian Coordinating Human Development and Culture Minister Muhadjir Effendy has claimed that Indonesia recorded only a moderate number of COVID-19 cases compared to other ASEAN countries and said the number continued to go down, dismissing Indonesia’s patchy testing capability and the highest death rate in the region.

“We’re on the right track. There is a decreasing trend of cases, though not dramatically. I thank all the people who have complied with the government’s COVID-19 precautionary measures,” Muhadjir said during a press briefing on Friday.

The statement came amid the government’s policy to ease travel restrictions and plans to gradually lift social restrictions in June.

On Saturday, Indonesia’s COVID-19 team reported the highest number of new cases in a single day, which was 533, bringing the total to 13,645 cases.

The data, critics and scientists have said, were not accurate because of Indonesia’s low testing capacity, which stood at fewer than 1,600 a day since March 3. As of Saturday noon, Indonesia has tested 108,669 people, which means it has conducted 0.39 tests per 1,000 people, one of the lowest test rates in the world.

Muhadjir considered the total number of confirmed cases “unexceptional” as Indonesia had a population of 273 million compared to the 6 million in Singapore, which recorded 22,460 cases as of Saturday.

He added that the country’s current growth rate of cases was not as extreme as in Europe or North America. According to the graph made by ourworldindata.org, starting in the fourth week after its first reported cases, the cases number in Indonesia doubles every five to seven days.

“We’re grateful that the exponential growth is not as rapid as predicted. The peak is at 500 cases a day,” he said, adding that the number of fatalities was plateauing as well and that all these data were used by the government as a guide to creating policies regarding COVID-19 handling in the near future.

Disease surveillance and biostatistics researcher at the Eijkman-Oxford Clinical Research Unit, Iqbal Ridzi Fahdri Elyazar, however, was skeptical about the government’s claims.

“The government is not looking at the right curve, the epi curve. They use analytical tools that are invalid, inaccurate, not trustworthy, and don’t meet the epidemiological standards in assessing the COVID-19 situation,” Iqbal told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.

According to the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention, an epidemic curve, or epi curve, is a visual display of the onset of illness to assess the distribution of cases over time. An epi curve shows the daily infection rate.

Indonesia had yet to have an epi curve and therefore, any claims of a decline in cases were not based on the right tool. What the government had been displaying was a curve showing the daily cases reported by the authorities, not the onset of infections, Iqbal said. The Health Ministry, he said, should have made epi curves to get a clearer picture of what was happening.

“To determine the onset of infections, a thorough epidemiology study should be done. But because it takes time and is costly, usually experts use other measures, such as the date when symptoms start showing, or the date when samples are taken, because some COVID-19 patients show no symptoms,” Iqbal told the Post.

The infection rate could not be determined by daily reported cases unless the test result came back positive for COVID-19 on the very day the people contracted the virus.

Meanwhile, the government has yet to reveal the average time gap between the sample collection and the test result. Some patients reported they had to wait for their test results for nine to 14 days, Kompas daily reported.

Wide testing is just as important in supporting the epi curve. Indonesia’s testing coverage is still very low with only 0.39 tests per 1000 people, far less than in neighboring Vietnam, which has conducted 2.68 tests per 1000 people, Singapore with 30.02 tests per 1000 people. Authorities in Iceland, meanwhile, have conducted 154.4 tests per 1000 people. (The Jakarta Post)