Experts Project Surge in COVID-19 Cases in Indonesia

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - University of Padjadjaran statistician Yuyun Hidayat on Monday said COVID-19 cases would predictably continue to climb throughout the week as the total number of confirmed cases neared the one million mark.

“The surge in weekly cases in Indonesia ranks the country third in Asia and has overtaken Iran,” said Hidayat on Monday, January 11. 

Based on data analysis up to Saturday, January 9, India remains first with 126,319 new weekly cases, followed by Turkey with 85,083 cases, while Indonesia recorded 59,913 cases, said Yuyun. However, in total, India ranks first with 10.4 million recorded cases followed by Turkey with 2.3 million cases and Iran with 1.2 million cases.

“Indonesia ranks fourth,” he said.

Indonesia’s additional 59,913 cases adds to the existing total number of cases and from January 3-January 9, 2021, the total number has leapt to 818,386 cases. The Padjadjaran University statistician said the total number of cases by the end of this month could amount to 895,250-978,028 cases. 

Public health policy expert Deni Kurniadi Sunjaya believed the use of face masks that average above 95 percent would help reduce the number of COVID-19 confirmed cases and highlighted the fact that the face mask compliance of Indonesians were just over 70 percent. 

Read: COVID-19 Patients at Wisma Atlet Hospital Continue to Rise

ANWAR SISWADI