TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The University of Indonesia’s faculty of medicine (FKUI) microbiology laboratory had conducted a preliminary study about the spread of COVID-19 cases in Indonesia. The study shows that based on the country’s demography, the average COVID-19 patients are aged 44.5 years old (ages range from 2-85 years old) and 59 percent of the cases infect the male population.

The university’s faculty of medicine dean, Ari Fahrial Syam, said that the preliminary study is a crucial piece of data for domestic and international researchers. The study was conducted by the microbiology staff: Fera Ibrahim, Pratiwi Sudarmono, Yulia Rosa Saharman, and A. Natasha.

“The data is an overview of Indonesia’s COVID-19 cases from one officially-referred lab,” wrote Syam in a written statement on Tuesday, August 25.

The FKUI laboratory is one of Indonesia’s labs that test COVID-19 specimens officially referred by the government. The University of Indonesia lab had received 4,167 specimens from March to April 2020, which showed 582 positive specimens, meaning that the positivity rate is 12.6 percent.

The study also shows that 17 percent of patients had comorbid illnesses that range from cardiovascular diseases (58 percent), and diabetes (37 percent). The average age of positive patients nearly resembles those in Singapore (42.5 years old) but is younger than that of Wuhan (55.5 years old).

The finding that links positive cases with male patients and cardiovascular diseases is in line with reports from other countries. Moreover, 8 percent of COVID-19 positive cases work as healthcare workers.

Other findings from this study found that 22 percent of COVID-19 patients are asymptomatic, 34 percent have mild symptoms, and 44 percent range from having mild up to severe symptoms.

The study will be submitted to the New Microbes and New Infections international journal in September this year.

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MOH KHORY ALFARIZI