Govt Admits to Having COVID-19 Data Issues Yet It Is Now Better
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3 December 2020 13:32 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture Muhadjir Effendy admitted there were issues related to COVID-19 data between the central and regional governments. According to him, data collection and integration does take time.
“Teaching the regions to collect data properly also takes time,” said Muhadjir at Tempo HQ, Palmerah, on Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2020.
Muhadjir explained that several regions did not collect data properly and even asked hospitals to not submit data due to fear of being considered failed in dealing with virus transmission.
However, Muhadjir said the current data collection was getting better. “It’s becoming more measurable, the update is already in real-time that I can check any time,” he added.
The other problem, he continued, was that many regional officials were reluctant to inspect the case development directly to the field. Thus, the data were obtained only from table to table.
Muhadjir argued that regional officials needed to monitor the pandemic handling directly in order to help make decisions.
Previously, independent coronavirus data community 'Lapor Covid-19' discovered that 135 regencies and cities did not consistently update the data on the pandemic mitigation, or 26 percent of the total 506 regencies/cities of Indonesia.
“Inconsistency in reporting the information can actually pose a risk of public misinterpretation over the pandemic which also affects people’s daily activities,” said Lapor Covid-19 data analyst, Said Fariz Hibban, as quoted from Tempo Newspaper’s Thursday edition, Dec. 3, 2020.
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