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W. Java military academy cluster detected after cadet visited doctor for boils
West Java recorded the highest spike with 962 new cases on Thursday, accounting for most of Indonesia’s latest all-time-high record of 2,657 new cases on a single day.
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Addressing an audience of army cadets during his visit to the military academy, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Andika Perkasa said the first two cadets who were diagnosed with the disease had sought medical attention for seemingly unrelated symptoms.
(JP/Dhoni Setiawan)
T
he first confirmed COVID-19 cases at the Army’s Officer Candidate School (Secapa) cluster in Bandung, West Java, were detected after one of the cadets visited a doctor because he was suffering from boils, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Andika Perkasa said on Saturday.
Addressing an audience of army cadets during his visit to the military academy, Andika said the first two cadets who were diagnosed with the disease had sought medical attention for seemingly unrelated symptoms.
Their COVID-19 swab test results came back positive, however, triggering widespread testing at the school, which led to the discovery of hundreds of more cases.
“Two of our colleagues went to the hospital […]. They didn’t complain about any breathing difficulties. One of them complained about boils, if I’m not mistaken, some sort of an infection. Whereas the other officer [complained] about back problems,” Andika said during his address, which was streamed on the Indonesian Army’s official YouTube channel.
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He went on to say that there were 1,280 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the cluster, 991 of which were cadets.
“I instruct anyone who has interacted with the two cadets to take a rapid test. I have sent rapid test kits to everyone, which means that Indonesian Army leadership has continued to care for and support our fellow colleagues,” Andika said.
West Java recorded the highest spike with 962 new cases on Thursday, accounting for most of Indonesia’s latest all-time-high record of 2,657 new cases on a single day.
“The significant increase in West Java comes from the Secapa [the Army’s Officer Candidate School] cluster,” national COVID-19 task force spokesperson Achmad Yurianto said during his daily press briefing on Thursday.
West Java COVID-19 task force spokesperson Berli Hamdani previously declared the military academy a new COVID-19 cluster in the province after hundreds of cadets tested positive during swab testing in the facility.
