Indonesia’s death toll from COVID-19 topped 200 on Monday, with the government voicing particular concern about transmission from asymptomatic carriers as the number of positive cases continued to rise.

Health Ministry Disease Control and Prevention Director General Achmad Yurianto said 218 new cases had been confirmed on Monday, bringing the country’s tally to 2,491 following the testing of 11,242 samples nationwide.

Some 209 people have died of the contagious disease while 192 have recovered so far.

“We now believe the increasing number of cases comes from sources [of infection] that are difficult to detect. We have noted that some sources are people who do not show symptoms,” Yurianto said on Monday.

He said asymptomatic carriers spread the virus through droplets when they talked, sneezed or coughed, but that they themselves did not notice they had contracted the disease.

“The real picture of the data we have collected shows that there are still sources of infection out there with asymptomatic carriers among the public,” he noted. “There are also those prone to being infected because they don’t wear face masks or wash their hands.”

With the trajectory of the coronavirus outbreak not showing any signs of slowing, the government declared last week a nationwide public health emergency and implemented large-scale social restrictions aimed at curbing transmission of the virus.

Among the measures, the government has ordered people to stay at home and not to go to schools, offices, places of worship or public places.

Some cities, such as Bandung in West Java, Balikpapan in East Kalimantan and Tegal in Central Java, are temporarily closing major roads and introducing curfews as a rising number of cases begins to be recorded in provinces outside Java.

Jakarta, the national epicenter of the outbreak, recorded on Monday 101 new cases, taking the number of confirmed cases in the city to 1,232 — more than half of the country’s overall tally.

West Java, the second-hardest hit region among the country’s 32 virus-hit provinces, has reported 263 confirmed cases as of Monday, followed by East Java with 189 cases, Banten with 187 cases and Central Java with 132 cases.

However, National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) spokesman Agus Wibowo said that the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases the central government had been publishing did not match the figures that regional administrations were reporting.

Agus said on Sunday during a virtual discussion with the Indonesian Energy Academy that the BNPB had been collating reports from both the Health Ministry and regional administrations in its work behind the scenes, and claimed that he did not understand the reason for the discrepancy in the data.

“The BNPB gathers data from the regions and the Health Ministry. We compare them. But because the [government] spokesman is Pak Yuri, we publish what he reports,” Agus said, referring to Yurianto.

Agus confirmed a lack of data transparency from the central government, saying that the data the BNPB received from the Health Ministry was limited.

“We have been fed limited data from the Health Ministry, so we have not been able to provide complete or [transparent] data,” said Agus.

“I just found out that what the Health Ministry reports to the WHO [World Health Organization] is complete, with the case gender, age and [medical] status. I’ve only just been made aware that such data [exists],” he said.

Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan earlier cast doubt on the central government’s data, saying that the capital had buried more than 400 Jakartans according to COVID-19 protocols.

West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil also suggested that the number of confirmed cases in his province was exponentially higher than the central government’s published figures.

With many health workers also being infected, the government is working to ramp up production of personal protective equipment amid an increasing shortage.

Yurianto has also called on members of the public to wear face masks when outside their homes, explaining that cloth masks would suffice to prevent transmission.

“Surgical masks and N95 masks are only for health workers. We can just use masks we make on our own, no less than four hours every day, and we have to wash them with soap,” he said.

Meanwhile, two of Indonesia’s largest mass Muslim organizations, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah, have advised people against participating in the annual Idul Fitri mudik (exodus) in May, arguing it would exacerbate the spread of COVID-19 throughout the country.

Muhammadiyah chairman Haedar Nashir said that although mudik was an otherwise positive tradition under normal circumstances, returning to one’s home region was simply not advisable during the pandemic.

“Religious activities have been limited in accordance with the established religious laws. So, of course, mudik, as a social activity, should also be stopped,” Haedar said in a statement on Sunday.

NU deputy chairman Robikin Emhas, who also is also an expert staff member to Vice President Ma’ruf Amin, has also urged Muslims to refrain from participating in mudik this year.

“The current state of emergency requires careful consideration. Therefore, let’s break the chain of COVID-19 infection by not participating in mudik during this Idul Fitri holiday,” Robikin said on March 28.

He called on Muslims to remain in touch with their relatives through alternative channels of communication instead, such as video calls.

Popular

To my horror, it’s just a movie!

RI, Australia strengthen partnership on taxing crypto assets

Pentagon chief congratulates Prabowo on being elected President