TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Jakarta Health Agency Head Widyastuti confirmed that as of October 1, 2020, 53 percent of Covid-19 patients in the capital city did not present any symptom or asymptomatic. The figure, she said, increased from previously 50 percent. Yet she stopped short of detailing the time.

“There is indeed about 53 percent of the daily active cases as of October 1 are asymptomatic,” said Widyastuti in a virtual discussion via the BNPB Youtube channel on Thursday, October 1.

The recovery rate, she went on, reached 81.9 percent. The pandemic mitigation task force considered it the highest among other cities’ rates.

However, she appealed to the public to stay alert given the city’s mortality rate that hit 2.3 percent. Besides, the virus positivity rate for the last week stood at 10.3 percent, while the cumulative rate since the onset of the pandemic is 7.9 percent.

The weekly fatality rate in Jakarta dropped compared to the previous weeks that had touched 12-15 percent. Even so, it exceeded the recommended safe rate by the World Health Organization (WHO) of 5 percent.

The daily number of new infections in Jakarta continued to rise. It even reached over 1,000 cases per day. The capacity of isolation rooms was also dropping.

The central and Jakarta government then joined hands to set up Covid-19 isolation centers and opened a new tower of the Wisma Atlet Emergency Hospital in Kemayoran, Jakarta.

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LANI DIANA WIJAYA