Army Confirms 819 Secapa AD Cadets Recover from COVID-19

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Army Chief of Staff General Andika Perkasa confirmed that 819, or 62.6 percent of the 1,308 cadets of the Indonesian Army's Officer Candidate School (Secapa AD), made a complete recovery from the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

The remaining 489 cadets are still diagnosed with COVID-19 of which just 10 remain hospitalized at the Dustira Army Hospital in Bandung, the capital of West Java Province, General Perkasa noted in a statement received by ANTARA here on Saturday.

The other 479 cadets underwent quarantine at the Secapa compound, he remarked, adding that handling of the Secapa COVID-19 cluster showed a positive trend owing to the rising number of recoveries.

In expediting the handling of COVID-19 cases, Perkasa affirmed that the army had collaborated with Airlangga University over the COVID-19 medicine.

On July 16, 2020, the second PCR laboratory at the Sariningsih Army Hospital in Bandung became operational to speed up the process of examining swab test specimens. It is part of the 68 PCR laboratory facilities available at 68 army hospitals throughout Indonesia.

In supporting the government's ongoing efforts to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, the Indonesian Army has also attempted to provide stocks of medical equipment and pushed the clinical trials of the combined COVID-19 medicine at army hospitals, he stated.

COVID-19 initially struck the Chinese city of Wuhan at the end of 2019 and thereafter spread across the world, including to countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

The Indonesian government made an official announcement of the country's first confirmed cases on March 2 this year.

As of July 17, 2020, Indonesia had recorded 83,130 COVID-19 cases, with 41,834 recoveries and 3,957 deaths.

The virus spread across the country's provinces, with the highest number of cases reported in East Java, reaching 17,829; followed by 15,889 cases in Jakarta, 7,713 cases in South Sulawesi, 6,366 cases in Central Java, and 5,402 cases in West Java.

To tackle this COVID-19 pandemic, Indonesia is leaving no stone unturned to develop a vaccine to fight the virus.

To this end, spokesperson for the COVID-19 Handling Task Force Wiku Adisasmito echoed the government's aspirations to prioritize the triad of safety, precision, and speed in the domestic production of the COVID-19 vaccine.

"We must say that in the development of this vaccine, the Indonesian government prioritizes three important aspects, with the first is about it being safe; second, being precise; and third, being fast," Adisasmito emphasized on Friday.

State-owned pharmaceutical holding company Bio Farma has recently collaborated with Chinese company Sinovac to produce the COVID-19 vaccine for Indonesia. The COVID-19 vaccine material from Sinovac arrived in Indonesia on July 19.

Read: 98 COVID-19 Patients from Bandung TNI Academy Cluster Recovered

ANTARA