Anies Baswedan: High New COVID-19 Cases Are Consequence of Massive Testing

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan considered the high number of new COVID-19 cases in the capital was a consequence of the massive tests conducted by the city administration.

“So our testing activity is high. Even yesterday, 43 percent of the total testing throughout Indonesia was carried out in Jakarta. This has a consequence for a high number of positive cases,” said Anies in a virtual discussion on Monday, August 31.

Anies explained that the testing capacity in Jakarta carried out by the local government and private parties hit 11,000 per day. The average figure in a week reached 40,000-50,000 tests, he added.

According to him, with the high testing capacity, the government has sufficient data to determine current pandemic conditions. “By that, we know the truth about the status of COVID-19 in Jakarta,” Anies Baswedan remarked.

Additionally, Jakarta could detect new infections earlier to implement isolation and treatment in an effort to curb further transmission, besides actively carried out case finding based on tracing results, he said.

The Jakarta COVID-19 mitigation task force on Sunday, August 30, reported 1,114 new confirmed cases, the highest hike since the onset of the pandemic. The city’s Health Agency head of disease prevention and control, Dwi Oktavia, said the increase was due to long weekends in the past two weeks.

Read: Anies Baswedan Claims Jakarta's  Active COVID-19 Cases Drop

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