TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin explained the reasons for the surge in Covid-19 positivity rate after every long holiday, including the Chinese New Year holiday, although the central government was enforcing the micro-scale restriction of community activities or Micro PPKM.

According to Budi, the hike in the positivity rate did not mean an increase in the number of cases. He claimed that Indonesia recorded a downward trend in the last two weeks as a result of the PPKM which was evident from the consistent drop in the number of patients albeit the rising positivity rate after the Chinese New Year holiday.

“The positivity rate increases because the testing capacity drops every holiday so that the number of confirmed cases has also decreased. Besides, this year’s lunar new year holiday lasted for four days," Budi said in a virtual press conference on Wednesday, February 17.

However, Budi realized that the government must work harder to suppress the positivity rate which is still at 20 percent.

The Health Ministry, he reiterated, had three hypotheses that cause the high Covid-19 positivity rate, namely technical issues on data input, inequality between the rate of cases and the testing capacity, and the inconsistent data from laboratories.

Read: Jakarta Covid-19 Positivity Rate Increases as 3,567 New Cases Detected

DEWI NURITA