The government has claimed that almost 60 percent of the country is either at low risk of COVID-19 infection or has zero cases.

According to the chief of the national COVID-19 task force expert staff, Wiku Adisasmito, 188 regions in Indonesia are classified as yellow zones (places where there is a low risk of infection), while 112 are green zones (regions where there are zero confirmed cases).

He explained that the percentage of regions included in yellow or green zones had been consistently increasing, from 46.7 percent to 58.3 percent between May 31 and June 21, though the number decreased once to 44.3 percent on June 7.

“Some businesses [in those regions] have reopened,” Wiku said in a virtual press briefing from the State Palace on Wednesday.

He claimed that Indonesia’s economic and public health situation was otherwise “not really worse” compared to other countries thanks to the policies implemented by the government.

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In the last three months, there was an increase in the number of hospitals that handed over reports of COVID-19 cases to the national task force, from 250 in the early days of the outbreak to 1,687 thus far.

“Hospital availability has also increased, from 132 referral hospitals [three months ago] to 800 referral hospitals in all 34 provinces,” Wiku said.  

The country increased its rate of testing between May and June, when 220 laboratories tested nearly 20,000 samples a day. At the beginning of the outbreak, there was only one laboratory testing less than 1,000 samples daily.

Wiku further claimed that some regions had managed to contain the virus. As of Sunday, 38 cities or regencies in 19 provinces had recorded zero cases of COVID-19 in the last four weeks.

However, 57 cities or regencies are categorized as red zones (high-risk areas), while 157 areas are orange zones (medium-risk). The number of red zones increased from 51 to 57 between June 14 and 21.

“The local administrations are the key actors of reporting and mitigating COVID-19 in their jurisdictions,” said Dewi Nur Aisyah, an epidemiologist on the national task force’s team of experts.

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo said he appreciated local leaders and regional task forces that managed to contain the virus.

“With an integrated information system, we can roll out policies that are based on data and science,” he said.