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West Java traces additional COVID-19 cases in two major clusters
The West Java Health Agency has detected additional COVID-19 cases in two major clusters in the province. One cluster is thought to have begun at a religious seminar held by the Bethel Church of Indonesia (GBI) in Lembang and the other at the National Police Officer Candidate School in Sukabumi.
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Health officials conduct rapid COVID-19 tests in Kayuringin subdistrict, South Bekasi, West Java, on May 2. (Antara/Fakhri Hermansyah)
Health authorities in West Java are tracking additional COVID-19 cases belonging to two major clusters in the province.
West Java Health Agency secretary Siska Gerfianti said the two clusters emanated from a religious seminar held by Bethel Church of Indonesia (GBI) in Lembang in March and the National Police’s Officer Candidate School in Sukabumi.
“We found one [additional] positive COVID-19 case from the GBI cluster. [The patient] works in a factory and has possibly given the virus to other people. Rapid testing of several people in the factory shows that some have tested positive. We suggested the factory be closed,” Siska said.
She added that some students of the officer school had returned to their respective hometowns, although they had previously been quarantined after some tested positive during an earlier round of rapid testing.
“We found five COVID-19 transmission chains in this cluster. We have to really pay attention to this cluster because of its high potential for disease transmission,” Siska said.
The health agency has detected five COVID-19 clusters in the province. In addition to the Lembang and Sukabumi clusters, there is a cluster from an anti-riba (usury) seminar, a cluster from a religious seminar held by the Protestant Churches of Western Indonesia (GPIB) in Bogor and a cluster from a West Java Youth Entrepreneur Forum in Karawang.
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The agency also recorded an increase in the number of COVID-19 cases in several cities and regencies in the province, including Sukabumi, Banjar, Karawang and Garut.
“There are 11 chains of local transmission spread throughout 11 districts in Karawang. We also detected a cluster in Garut as a result of Bangladesh nationals [who had COVID-19] visiting the city.”
West Java has performed 113,000 rapid tests out of its target of 300,000 as of the time of the writing. It has also conducted 2,999 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests daily. The total daily capacity of the eight laboratories in the province currently capable of performing PCR tests is 5,838.
Health agency head Berli Hamdani said the poor quality of the testing kits had caused them to spend more time and use more reagents to verify test results.
“The newly opened laboratories are still using manual extraction methods with a limited number of operators,” said Berli. “Our laboratories need more reagents – especially for PCR testing – and other equipment to extract swab samples from people.”
The West Java administration is preparing 11 laboratories, in addition to the current 8, for COVID-19 PCR testing. (dpk)
