TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture Muhadjir Effendy said four provinces in the country were under the surveillance status as they continued to record a significant rise in the COVID-19 transmission rate.

“Presently, people are not the only ones who are under surveillance, but we now we also have PDP, or province under surveillance,” he said in Makassar, South Sulawesi, Sunday, June 7, 2020.

The four provinces he referred to were East Java, South Sulawesi, South Kalimantan and South Sumatera.

Until June 7, East Java recorded 113 new cases daily, propelling the total number of COVID-19 positive cases to 5,948 cases—second only to Jakarta nationwide.

The government’s COVID-19 task force chief, Doni Monardo, said the rocketing number of transmission in the province was attributable to the many existing clusters, including the ones originating from the Gowa Ijtima (Islamic mass gathering), the Temboro pesantren (Islamic boarding school) and the Sampoerna cigarette factory.

South Sulawesi, meanwhile, has recorded an average of 30-60 new COVID-19 cases daily with total confirmed positive cases reaching 1,904 cases. Doni said the spike in the transmission figure was relative to the Gowa Ijtima.

COVID-19 cases has also surged in South Kalimantan, which saw 1,285 cases in total till June 7, 2020—making it the only province on Kalimantan Island with a total tally of over 1,000.

South Sumatera, which recorded its first positive COVID-19 case on March 28, 2020, has also become the first province on Sumatera Island to record more than 1,000 cases. As of June 7, the province recorded 1,129 cases with a daily increase of over 20.

EGY ADYATAMA