TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Jakarta records 404 new COVID-19 cases, setting third new record in less than a week
“Do not let this situation reach the point where we have to pull the emergency brake,” Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan said. “If that happens, we all have to go back home and economic, religious and social activities will be halted.”
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Good to be back: Jakartans take to the streets around the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle to exercise during Car Free Day (CFD). After having been suspended since March 15 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Jakarta administration resumed CFD along Jl. Sudirman and Jl. MH Thamrin with strict health protocols in place during the transition phase of the large-scale social restrictions (PSBB). (JP/Donny Fernando)
J
akarta Governor Anies Baswedan has announced that the capital had recorded 404 new confirmed COVID-19 cases as of Sunday morning, the highest one-day spike since the outbreak began in the city.
The spike comes not long after Jakarta registered its previous record highs of 359 cases on Saturday and 308 cases on Wednesday.
“This spike is a warning to us all,” Anies said in a video statement posted to the administration’s official YouTube channel on Sunday afternoon.
The former education minister said that while most of the new cases were the result the administration’s massive “active case finding” efforts, the city's increasing positivity rate — the number of people who test positive divided by the total number tested — was cause for concern.
Anies said that since the beginning of June, Jakarta’s weekly positivity rate had consistently been below 5 percent, which is one of the World Health Organization’s requirements for region's seeking to enter the new normal.
“But today, the positivity rate has risen to 10.5 percent, a two-fold spike,” he said. “That is why I want to tell all Jakartans: do not take this lightly. Do not feel like we are free of the COVID-19 outbreak.”
He added that around 66 percent of new cases detected since June were people who were asymptomatic.
“So we have to be extra careful […] because if this continues, we may have to return to [social restrictions],” he said.
Read also: ‘Don’t be satisfied with numbers’: Doubts remain as Jakarta officials claim epidemic under control
Anies urged residents to wear face masks at all times, maintain a distance of at least 1 meter from each other, wash their hands regularly and ensure rooms were filled to only 50 percent of capacity.
“Do not let this situation reach the point where we have to pull the emergency brake,” he said. “If that happens, we all have to go back home and economic, religious and social activities will be halted.”
Earlier this month, the administration extended the city's large-scale social restrictions (PSBB) to July 15 but the restrictions have been relaxed since June 4, with businesses and offices reopening under new health protocols.
