A Year of Coronavirus Pandemic; Covid-19 Task Force Reflects on Risk Zones

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - After going through a year battling the coronavirus pandemic, the Indonesian Covid-19 task force recorded a risk zoning map shift where 'green zones', or areas with less cases, have dwindled. 

The development of the risk zoning map from May 2020 to February 2021 shows that the shift has made many regions fall into the high transmission rate ‘red zone,’ medium risk ‘orange zone,’ and the low-risk ‘yellow zone.’ 

“It is quickly visible that green zones that initially dominated Indonesia’s western and eastern regions are becoming more scarce,” said Covid-19 handling task force spokesperson Wiku Adisasmito on Thursday, March 4. 

In February this year, there were only four cities/regencies in East Indonesia that were categorized as green zones as they did not record new cases. 

Meanwhile, orange zones that only dominated regions in the Java Island and parts of Kalimantan and Sumatra have now spread even further to every Indonesian island by December 2020. However, this condition has slowly reduced in February 2021, and has not dominated regions in Sumatra and Papua. 

Orange zones for coronavirus transmission now constitute 59 percent of all 514 regencies/cities in Indonesia. “This condition must be improved. Regions spending months as orange zones must immediately improve,” the Covid-19 task force spokesperson said. 

DEWI NURITA