TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The national Covid-19 mitigation task force announced an exponential increase in the number of regions classified as red zones, or at a high risk of coronavirus transmission, within the past week.

“The weekly mapping of virus risk zone as of August 30, 2020, showed there is a quite large hike in red zones to 65 regencies/cities, compared to the previous week’s 32 high-risk regions,” said the task force spokesman, Wiku Adisasmito, in a press conference on Tuesday, Sept. 1.

According to the Covid-19 task force spokesman, there are 43 new regencies/cities across 16 provinces categorized as red zones, as follows:

- Aceh: South Aceh, West Aceh, Pidie, Southwest Aceh, Nagan Raya, Banda Aceh City

- North Sumatra: Dairi, Binjai City, Tebing Tinggi City, Gunungsitoli City

- West Sumatra: Agam, Bukittinggi City

- South Sumatra: Lubuklinggau City

- Riau: Batam City

- West Java: Bekasi, Bekasi City, Depok City

- East Java: Malang, Banyuwangi, Blitar City, Malang City, Pasuruan City, Batu City

- Central Java: Surakarta City, Semarang City

- Banten: Tangerang, Tangerang City

- Bali: Tabanan, Klungkung, Bangli, Karangasem

- West Nusa Tenggara: Sumbawa, Mataram City

- South Kalimantan: Banjar, Barito Kuala, Banjarmasin City

- East Kalimantan: Penajam Paser Utara

- North Sulawesi: Minahasa, Minahasa Utara, City of Manado

- Southeast Sulawesi: Kendari City

- West Papua: Sorong

“We ask regional heads of the 43 regencies/cities to work even harder along with their communities to improve the alarming conditions,” Wiku said.

He added that the number of regions at a medium-risk Covid-19 transmission also rose to 230 from 222. Meanwhile, the low-risk areas dropped to 151 from last week’s 189 regions. The green zone areas slightly increased by 1 to 42.

“While regions that have no Covid-19 cases decrease from 30 to 26 regencies/cities,” Wiku outlined.

Read: COVID-19 Task Force: Long Holidays Helped Spread the Virus

EGI ADYATAMA