TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The government has officially decided not to count the number of suspected cases following the bump in the number of positive COVID-19 or coronavirus cases. As of March 8, the health ministry announced 21 suspected cases which resulted in 13 positive coronavirus cases with additional 8 positive cases.
“We will no longer count the number of suspected cases as it continues to grow. That will lead to rising and dropping numbers. Cases of suspects turning into positive cases or [suspects turning out to be negative] is not a measurement for us,” said Indonesia’s official spokesman for the coronavirus mitigation at the presidential office on Tuesday, March 10.
As it is generally known, suspected coronavirus patients are those who show symptoms similar to those of a person who has contracted the virus that originated from China’s province of Wuhan. Suspects are also believed to have made contact with positive COVID-19 cases.
Currently, Indonesia has recorded and confirmed 27 positive COVID-19 cases which consist of 8 patients in the Jakarta cluster; 12 cases identified as imported cases; one case came from one of Indonesia’s Diamond Princess cruise ship crew; 2 cases come from Jakarta’s sub-cluster; while the last was tracked via contact tracing of a patient who is linked to the Case 03 patient.
Meanwhile, the other 2 patients contracted the COVID-19 or coronavirus from prior cases who are also family members. The health agency is yet to determine the source of infection for the last case.
DEWI NURITA
