Health Agency Clarifies Why Jakarta Yet to Pull COVID-19 Emergency Brake

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Jakarta Health Agency said Governor Anies Baswedan has not needed to pull the emergency brake yet albeit the transmission of the COVID-19 Omicron variant in the capital is rising.

The agency argued that the addition of daily infections was still within safe limits, including the occupancy rate of hospital beds and ICU.

“We see that the current situation can still be under PPKM Level 2,” said the agency’s head of disease prevention and control Dwi Oktavia to Tempo, Wednesday, January 26.

Dwi explained the current ICU occupancy rate was recorded at 14 percent and the hospital bed occupancy rate was at 45 percent. She argued the figures were still safe since the alarm limit is at 60 to 70 percent.

As of Wednesday, Jan. 26, the agency recorded 1.886 new COVID-19 active cases. Thus, 14,082 patients were still undergoing treatment or isolation. The agency also discovered 3,509 new confirmed cases.

According to Dwi, the emergency brake will be taken when the occupancy rate of isolation rooms, the occupancy rate of hospital beds, and the number of cases are not stable.

“That is an important point. Besides public activities, perhaps we have already known that it is difficult to control [the public discipline in] the health protocols and others,” said Dwi.

Even though the agency has not yet recommended Governor Anies Baswedan to pull the COVID-19 emergency brake, Dwi encouraged the public to implement health protocols.

Read: Eijkman-BRIN: Indonesia's Immunity Wall Against COVID-19 Quite High

M JULNIS FIRMANSYAH