TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Epidemiologist from Griffith University in Australia, Dicky Budiman, responded to Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan’s decision to again prolong the Transitional Large-Scale Social Restriction (PSBB).

Dicky argued that Jakarta is still facing a crisis of coronavirus transmission risk given its high positivity rate. “So if it (the positivity rate) is between 8 and 10 percent, it is actually in a crisis, and it is a very serious matter,” he told Tempo on Tuesday, Dec. 8.

The capital city, he added, could not be said to have controlled the pandemic albeit it recorded better performance of testing than other regions. “The tracing is not yet sufficient, so the testing needs to be increased,” Dicky said.

The social restriction is an additional strategy when the pandemic is out of control or the situation tends to worsen, he informed. Thus, the policy must be applied consistently and firmly, while raising the capacity of testing and tracing. “And while identifying new clusters such as in offices.”

Today, Dec. 8, Jakarta recorded that its positivity rate hit 8.3 percent. The figure was still above the safe rate by the World Health Organization (WHO) of below five percent. Because of the data, Anies extended the Transitional PSBB again until Dec. 21, 2020.

Anies Baswedan stated that the city saw a declining trend in the positivity rate from September to December. It was 11.2 percent in September, 9.6 percent in October, 9.1 percent in November, and 8.2 percent in December to date.

Read: Jakarta Records 1,174 New Daily Cases of Covid-19

LANI DIANA WIJAYA