IDI Urges People to Stay Vigilant against COVID-19 albeit Low Transmission Risk

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Indonesian Medical Association (IDI) COVID-19 task force head, Zubairi Djoerban, stated that Indonesia’s COVID-19 transmission risk is currently low compared to several other countries.

“Indonesia ranks above 40 in the world [on the virus transmission risk], the hospitals are empty, the positivity rate is very low at below 3 percent, and more and more people are getting vaccinated,” said Zubairi Djoerban, Tuesday, June 7, 2022.

However, the public is advised not to be too euphoric and to remain cautious about the virus infection.

As of June 5, 2022, he mentioned that the number of new cases in the country reached 388 with five deaths. “This means, the number of cases is above 300 but below 400. So it is relatively up slightly from May 2022. Indonesia had also recorded 100 new daily cases,” he explained.

Zubairi went on to say that North Korea recorded 600,000 cases in a week or 90,000 new cases a day on average and the United States’s new daily cases hit above 70,000.

Public health expert professor Tjandra Yoga Aditama explained a number of reasons why the COVID-19 pandemic is still lingering to date. Among them are the declining number of global tests which makes it difficult to see the real epidemiology condition and the low vaccination rate.

ANTARA

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