TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Jakarta Deputy Governor Ahmad Riza Patria outlined three causes of the spike in Covid-19 cases in the last few days in the capital.

Riza explained that the first cause was the high capacity of PCR tests carried out by the city administration, which was up to nine folds higher than the World Health Organization (WHO) standard.

The skyrocketing cases of coronavirus infection were also attributable to the accumulation of the previous days' data that had just been reported. “So the data entry is delayed,” said Riza in Jakarta Metro Police HQ on Sunday, Dec. 27, 2020.

In the last few days, the capital city reported around 2,000 new confirmed cases per day.

The last reason was the long holidays at the end of October that caused a surge in cases since mid-November to date, Riza added.

“For these reasons, we keep asking the public to stay home on this long holiday. No need to leave the house, let alone leave the town. Please enjoy this long holiday season in the joy of togetherness with the family at homes.”

The city administration was mulling to pull the emergency brake or halt the Transitional Large-Scale Social Restriction (PSBB) policy, which means imposing a local lockdown. The measure will be taken if the capital’s number of Covid-19 cases keeps rising.

The decision will likely be made after January 3, 2021, by Governor Anies Baswedan under considerations of epidemiological data and facts in Jakarta, Riza said.

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IMAM HAMDI