Active cases are the number of confirmed cases minus the number of recovered cases and deaths. The statistic represents the number of cases still considered to be infectious.

"Thank God, based on the reports I've received, as per Nov. 1 Indonesia has seen lower and better active case numbers compared with the global average. We recorded 13.78 percent active cases while the global average figure sits at 25.22 percent " Jokowi said on Monday.

He also said that Indonesia recorded a better recovery rate of 82.84 percent compared with the global average of 72 percent.

"We need to continue to reduce the number of active cases [...] and make our recovery rate better," he said.

Previously, the task force’s spokesperson and expert team coordinator, Wiku Adisasmito, said that Indonesia had seen a significant decrease in active COVID-19 cases compared with March, when the pandemic first hit the country.

Wiku explained that 91.26 percent of confirmed cases were active in March and that this percentage had decreased to 81.57 percent in April and 71.35 percent in May before dropping to 23.74 percent last month. 

“We hope it will continue to decrease until there are no more active cases and all patients have recovered,” he said on Oct. 22.

Despite recording better active case and recovery rates, however, Jokowi said Indonesia's fatality rate still topped the global average.

"Our fatality rate is still 3.38 percent, while the global average is 2.5 percent. This should become our concern," he said.

Last Tuesday, Wiku announced that the coronavirus death toll in Indonesia had increased by 18 percent over the week as social restrictions continued to be relaxed.

The COVID-19 task force had recorded 785 deaths linked to COVID-19 between Oct. 19 and 26, an increase from the 665 deaths recorded in the previous week.

As of Monday, Indonesia had recorded a total of 412,784 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 13,943 fatalities.

From the total cases recorded, 56,899 were still active, while 341,942 had recovered.

Jokowi has asked his administration to continue maintaining a balance between public health measures and economic recovery.

"I've said this dozens and dozens of times and I need to emphasize it once more [...]. We need to focus on regulating and maintaining the balance between public health measures and economic recovery," he said. (nal)

 

Editor’s note: This article is part of a public campaign by the COVID-19 task force to raise people’s awareness about the pandemic.