Best RI in Asia in controlling Covid-19
By : Syafrudin Pratama *)
The Covid-19 phenomenon that is happening in Indonesia is currently experiencing signs of improvement. This was reinforced by Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan as the Coordinating Minister for Maritime and Investment Midwives (Menko Marves) who claimed that the condition and development of the corona virus (Covid-19) case in Indonesia had recently become the best compared to other Asian countries.
Indonesia managed to control the Covid-19 pandemic quickly. Although cases are increasing, the hospitalization rate and death rate are still under control. Thus, the Covid-19 case in Indonesia is still the best in Asia and one of the best countries in dealing with Covid-19 in the world.
With the Covid-19 pandemic under control, economic growth in Indonesia is much better than all other countries in the world. This is reflected in Indonesia’s economic growth which reached 5.44 percent in the second quarter of 2022. This figure is above the prediction which only reached 5.2 percent.
Meanwhile, the number of cases of citizens infected with the corona virus in Indonesia continues to fluctuate every week. For example, after two weeks ago there was an increase, in the last week the weekly Covid-19 cases decreased compared to last week.
Based on the latest data related to Covid-19 cases in Indonesia, recorded during the period of July 25-31, the cumulative number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 in a week amounted to 38,756 cases. Meanwhile, in the following week or during the period August 1-7, the number of Covid-19 cases was 37,880.
However, the development of the number of deaths due to Covid-19 also shows an upward trend. During the period of July 25-31, the number of Covid-19 deaths totaled 91 cases. This number is higher than the death data in the past week which recorded 102 deaths.
In line with the Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Airlangga Hartarto as the Coordinating Minister for the Economy said that the spread of Covid-19 in Indonesia was much lower than in other countries. Although currently PPKM in Indonesia has entered level 1, the Covid-19 transmission rate still reaches 5,000 cases every week.
This number is much lower compared to a number of other countries in the world. For example, France has 90 thousand cases per week, America has 120 thousand cases, and Japan has 200 thousand cases per week.
Judging from the cases of the three countries, the low rate of transmission of Covid-19 in Indonesia is one of the effects of the high vaccine achievements that have been realized. It should be noted that the achievement of dose 1 vaccination in Indonesia has reached more than 90 percent. The achievement of dose 2 has reached more than 80 percent and dose 3 has reached more than 30 percent.
With a total of 420 million doses of vaccine that have been given to the people of Indonesia, Indonesia has become one of the best countries in handling Covid-19. This should be appreciated because the government has done its job to handle the Covid-19 pandemic in Indonesia very well.
For the public to know, the number of new positive Covid-19 patients in Indonesia as of Monday evening, August 8, 2022, was lower than the previous day. Thus, active cases have decreased.
Based on the records of the Covid-19 Handling Task Force, the number of active Covid-19 cases in Indonesia as of August 8, 2022 was recorded at 49,633 people, or down 512 people from the previous number of 50,145 people. As for the increase in daily positive cases nationwide, there were 4,425 people, or slightly higher than the number of recovered cases recorded at 4,919 people.
Nationally, the number of recovered cases in Indonesia as of August 8, 2002 has now reached 6,042,657 people. Meanwhile, the total national positive cases of Covid-19 have reached 6,249,403 people. For national death cases increased by 18 people. If you look at the total, the death cases have now increased to 157,113 people.
As for the number of people suspected of being infected or commonly referred to as suspected cases, the Covid-19 Handling Task Force noted there were 4,505 suspected people spread across 34 provinces affected by Covid-19. The number of examinations carried out by the government on August 8, 2022 was 45,365 people with 107,688 samples taken.
For the accumulation of examinations carried out in 1,237 Task Force network laboratories from April to August 8, 2022, the number reached 68,892,564 people with the number of specimens taken reaching 104,536,662 samples.
Based on the data that has been presented, the author believes that although the Covid-19 case in Indonesia is the best in Asia, the public should not be too happy and ultimately ignore health protocols. Until now, the government has not allowed the public to take off masks in open or closed spaces.
Thus, it is hoped that the community will continue to comply with health protocols when traveling by always wearing masks and maintaining a distance if there are crowds. So that the community can help in handling the spread of Covid-19 in Indonesia. Hopefully the Covid-19 pandemic in Indonesia will end soon, so that people can carry out their activities as before this pandemic existed.
*The author is a contributor to the Trilogy Institute