VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan officially declared the capital city to be in a state of emergency for the Covid-19 outbreak on Wednesday night.

Anies said this decision is in accordance with President Joko Widodo's direction regarding health control as a top priority to achieve economic recovery during the pandemic.

"The President firmly stated not to restart the economy until health is under control. He put health as a top priority. There are not many options for Jakarta except to pull the emergency brake as soon as possible,” Anies told reporters at City Hall on Wednesday.

"We will pull the emergency brake, which means we are forced to re-implement large-scale social restrictions [PSBB]. It's no longer a transitional PSBB, but we have to carry out the PSBB as it was in the early days," Anies said.

"We will implement work at home, learn from home, and pray from home," he added.

According to the Governor, this policy will be effective starting September 14, 2020. The reason for this emergency brake was taken because of the significant increase in the number of Covid-19 cases.

According to Anies, this can be seen from the percentage of the number of funerals in Covid-19, the use of isolation beds to the use of the special Covid-19 ICU facilities in Jakarta over the past two weeks.

He emphasized that if this situation continues, hospitals will not be able to accommodate the growing number of Covid-19 patients and the impact of deaths from Covid-19 will increase.

"And this is what we have to draw out, as we saw earlier, once the restrictions were put in place, the number of cases decreased. So that we can save our brothers. Once again, this is a matter of saving the citizens of Jakarta, if this is allowed, the hospital will not be able to accommodate it and the effect of this is that there will be high mortality in Jakarta," Anies said

Regarding the details of the implementation later, Anies continued, it will be conveyed while the policy is running. However, there are 11 vital business fields that can continue to run but with minimal capacity, namely: Health, Food / Food and Beverage, Energy, Communication and Information Technology, Finance, Logistics, Hospitality, Construction, Strategic Industries, Basic Services, Utilities public and industry which are designated as national vital objects and certain objects, and Fulfillment of daily needs.

Anies Baswedan emphasized three things that Jakarta residents must obey, namely working from home, studying from home, and praying at home.

On Wednesday, 1,026 cases have increased, so that the total number of Covid-19 cases in the capital has reached 49,837.

Dwi Oktavia, Head of Disease Prevention and Control in Jakarta said this increase was obtained from the results of the massive PCR test conducted by the Provincial Government.

"We took 9,904 PCR specimens, 1,026 were positive and 6,897 were negative. The total PCR test rate per one million population is 67,335. The number of people tested for PCR this past week is 59,146," she explained in a daily update on the development of the Covid-19 case at City Hall.

"As long as the vaccine is not yet available, the transmission of the plague must be prevented together with the discipline of enforcing social restrictions and health protocol," she said. (RRI)

Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan has officially slammed the brakes on the relaxations that had been applied to large-scale social restrictions (PSBB) and announced their complete re-imposition to contain coronavirus spread.

They had relaxed the restrictions as part of the shift towards the transitional PSBB.

"Considering the emergency in Jakarta, there are no other choices but to put the emergency brakes. This means we have to implement the PSBB as it was at the beginning of the pandemic," he said at a press statement at the Jakarta City Hall on Wednesday evening.

His decision of reimposing the PSSB in the capital city was prompted by three indicators that had raised the concern of the Jakarta Government, including the mortality rate, availability of isolation beds and ICU facilities for COVID-19, and the rate of positive cases.

"In the past two weeks, mortality rates have spiked back up. In terms of percentage, they may still be considerably low, but in terms of the numbers, they have gone back up. The availability of beds is at maximum capacity and they may be fully filled by the end of the month, if there are no restrictions," he explained.

The re-enforcement of large-scale social restrictions will be effective from Sep. 14, 2020, although Anies is yet to confirm when it will be lifted.

It has been reported earlier that the positivity rate of COVID-19 cases in Jakarta has reached 13.2 percent, or above the safe number of under 5 percent prescribed by the World Health Organization.

Based on Jakarta's government data, active cases in Jakarta, including patients receiving treatment or undergoing isolation, have reached 11,245 as of Tuesday. Meanwhile, the total number of confirmed cases in Jakarta now stands at 49,837, with 37,245 recoveries and 1,347 deaths.

The data released by the Jakarta Health Office on Wednesday also reveals that bed availability for daily COVID-19 isolation at 67 referral hospitals is at 77 percent of the total capacity of 4,456 beds.

The figures also show that there are 1,024 daily isolation beds for COVID-19 handling that are vacant.

Meanwhile, the occupancy rate at intensive care units (ICUs) has reached 83 percent of the capacity of 482 beds, leaving only 83 ICU beds remaining in 67 referral hospitals. (Antaranews)

One of the Indonesian press figures, as well as the founder of Kompas, Jakob Oetama passed away on Wednesday at the age of 88 years.

"Pak Jakob Oetama has passed away the founder of Kompas Gramedia," a statement from Kompas TV said.

Jakob Oetama died at Mitra Keluarga Kelapa Gading Hospital, Jakarta.

Jakob Oetama is planned to be buried at the Kompas Gramedia Building, Jakarta.

"You have been in a coma or critical condition since Sunday afternoon. It seems that God prefers to call him so that finally at 13.05, you passed away," Director of Communications of Kompas Gramedia Rusdi Amral said in a broadcast on Kompas TV, on Wednesday. (RRI)

The Indonesian Task Force for COVID-19 stated that Java and Bali had contributed 64.26 percent, or 114,590 cases, to the country's total confirmed COVID-19 case count, as of Sept 6, 2020. Sumatra follows after.

Dewi Nur Aisyah, a member of the COVID-19 Task Force, revealed during a press conference on Wednesday.

Sumatra has recorded 20,150 cases or 11.3 percent of the country's tally.

Sulawesi contributed by 10.63 percent with a tally of 18,960 cases; followed by Kalimantan by 9.49 percent or 16,915, and Maluku and Papua by 4.36 percent, or 7,778 confirmed cases.

Java and Bali also recorded the highest number of active cases, notably reaching 23,220, or 20.26 percent of their total number of confirmed cases.

The second-highest cases are on Sumatra Island, reaching 7,779, followed by 3,771 active cases in Sulawesi, 3,694 active cases in Kalimantan, and 1,910 active cases in Maluku and Papua.

A total of 85,772 COVID-19 recoveries were registered, so far, on Java and Bali, followed by 14,597 people recovering in Sulawesi, 12,551 in Kalimantan, 11,533 in Sumatra, and 5,729 people recovering in Maluku and Papua.

The death tolls on Java and Bali reached 5,518, followed by 838 in Sumatra, 666 in Kalimantan, 592 in Sulawesi, and 139 people had, so far, succumbed to COVID-19 in Maluku and Papua. (Antaranews)