Jakarta Must Not Rush in Relaxing PSBB, Epidemiologist Suggests

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - An epidemiologist with the University of Indonesia, Tri Miko Wahyono, appealed to the Jakarta provincial government to not rush in relaxing the Large-Scale Social Restriction (PSBB) Volume 2, which began on September 14 and was extended until October 11, 2020.

"Although the number of cases is starting to decline, do not easily enter into a transition period because the number of cases will increase again faster,” said Tri to Tempo on Thursday, October 1.

He argued that the government could explore the transitional PSBB again if the Covid-19 positivity rate stands stable at below 5 percent for several weeks and the virus effective reproduction number is below 1, which means one carrier does no longer transmit the virus to others.

According to Tri, the city administration could enforce the social restriction until next year in a bid to ensure that the pandemic can be controlled. He also recommended Jakarta to tighten the monitoring of health protocols to curb virus transmission.

“The infection office cluster has the potential to spread the virus further because of the risk of people carrying the virus from the office to homes or vice versa,” the epidemiologist remarked.

Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan claimed the curve of Covid-19 transmission began to flatten after the emergency brake policy was pulled.

From August 30 to September 11, Anies said, the city logged a spike in new Covid-19 infections with 3,864 cases or 49 percent in 12 days. Whereas on September 12-23, or during the PSBB Volume 2, there were 1,453 new cases with a percentage of 12 percent.

Read: Epidemiologist Suggests Inter-province Restriction to Limit People's Mobility

IMAM HAMDI