On the Rise; Travelers Account for Most of Jakarta's Covid-19 Cases

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Jakarta Health Office recorded 704 active cases of Covid-19 in the capital. The office's head of disease prevention and control, Dwi Oktavia Handayani, said that 515 of those cases are found among travelers.

"The number of travelers that tested positive is quite many, making the number of active cases increase," Dwi said on Tuesday, January 4.

Dwi said that mobility of travelers who tested positive varied, such as traveling abroad, business trips, and others. The spike in active cases also includes travelers who underwent isolations Jakarta.

According to Dwi, the active cases in Jakarta include a number of variants, "including Omicron."

On January 3, Jakarta logged 172 new infections to bring the number of active cases up to 694. The Jakarta Health Office also said that the capital's Covid-19 positivity rate had risen to 0.8 percent over the past week.

Dwi said there are now 162 Covid-19 cases of the Omicron variant in Jakarta, most of them are found among overseas travelers while six are local transmissions. She also said that other variants, including the first and Delta, are also still infecting people.  

Meanwhile, Jakarta Deputy Governor Ahmad Riza Patria said that Covid patients' bed occupancy rate in isolation wards and hospitals is still low at 5 percent. Meanwhile, the occupancy rate of ICU rooms is 4 percent.

"Medicine supplies are also more than enough," he said Monday night, January 3.

Read: Omicron; Govt Says Impossible to Ban Entry of International Travelers

Lani Diana Wijaya