Jakarta's Soaring COVID-19 Cases Due to Increased Tests: Expert

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - A professor of virology at Udayana University, G. N. Mahardika said that Thursday’s record-high of 973 COVID-19 cases reported in Jakarta is not yet alarming from a virology standpoint.  

Mahardika explained that the rise in daily cases corresponds to the increased testing capacity of 30 COVID-19 sample-testing laboratories.

“The significant spike in the number of cases should not make us overly worried. Virology-wise it is not a major issue,” Mahardika wrote in its press release on Thursday, May 21. 

In contrast, the virologist said Indonesia can claim success in implementing social distancing measures as he strongly argued that the total number of cases in Jakarta would have reached 1.7 million if the large-scale social restriction (PSBB) was not imposed.

However, he reminded that Indonesia’s epidemiology still bears the status of “under detected” compared to other international communities due to the lack of widespread testing. 

Based on numerous official sources, Mahardika said that the COVID-19 testing ratio in Indonesia remains at 65 people out of one million people. This fact is a stark contrast to Japan’s 509 people tested out of one million people. 

“Indonesia’s ratio is merely 10 percent compared to Japan,” said the virologist, adding that naturally, COVID-19 does not always cause severe cases of infection.

WHO also claimed that 80 percent of confirmed cases are able to recover without special treatments. 

ANTARA