Indonesia Covid-19 Cases Predicted to Reach 106,000 in July: BIN

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Doni Monardo, Chief of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (Covid-19) task force, conveyed the prediction made by the State Intelligence Agency (BIN) regarding the number of the confirmed coronavirus cases in Indonesia. He opined this projection is relatively accurate given the previous one and the real number of cases in March.

“BIN sent input that the estimated number of total cases at the end of March is 2,557, and that’s relatively accurate,” said Doni during an online meeting with the House of Representatives (DPR) Commission overseeing health affairs on Thursday, April 2.

The Chairman of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) added that the total Covid-19 case was predicted to reach 23,307 at the end of April. Referred to the data presented by him, the figure might keep increasing until July.

At May’s end, BIN estimated Indonesia might have 95,451 cases, up to 105,765 cases in June and 106,287 cases in July.

However, Doni underlined that the projection would not occur should Indonesia take serious precautionary measures. “This is an estimation,” said the former commander of the Indonesian army’s special forces.

BIN also predicted there are 50 out of 100 cities or regencies with a high-risk level of the pandemic, and 49 percent of them are on Java island.

Additionally, ten provinces might experience a shortage of health facilities to treat patients with Covid-19, namely West Java, Yogyakarta, South Sulawesi, Bali, East Kalimantan, North Sumatra, Papua, Aceh, Southeast Sulawesi, and Maluku.

Doni mentioned that one of the vital medical devices is ventilators. Based on data by Health Minister Terawan, only 8,000 ventilators are available across 2,867 Indonesian hospitals, both public and private. “We still need a lot of supply of equipment. We will cooperate with many parties [to address the issue],” Doni concluded.

BUDIARTI UTAMI PUTRI