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COVID-19 spreads in Central Java as public neglects health protocols
The coronavirus disease has continued to spread in the central and southern parts of Central Java, with spikes in cases attributable in part to a lack of awareness on COVID-19 and disease prevention.
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Keep safe: A man distributes face masks to villagers taking refuge from the possible eruption of Mount Merapi at Balerante village hall in Klaten, Central Java, on Monday. (JP/Donny Fernando)
The coronavirus disease has continued to spread in the central and southern parts of Central Java, with spikes in cases attributable in part to a lack of awareness on COVID-19 and disease prevention.
As of Monday at 5 p.m., there were 831 cases in Surakarta – the most in Central Java – 801 in Wonosobo regency, 772 in Cilacap regency, 713 in Kebumen regency and 568 in Magelang regency, according to official data from the province.
The provincial capital, Semarang, which previously had the most active cases in the region, dropped to sixth with 533 active cases, followed by Boyolali regency with 516 cases, Semarang regency with 512, Purbalingga regency with 477, Kendal regency with 434 and Banyumas regency with 406.
The data also indicates that the number of patients who are self-isolating has exceeded the number of hospitalized patients.
Meanwhile, the COVID-19 updates page on the Central Java administration website states that there are 48,273 cumulative cases, of which 7,036 are still under treatment, while 37,936 patients have recovered as of Monday at 12 p.m. The data also recorded 3,301 deaths and 769 additional confirmed cases within the last 24 hours.
Wonosobo regency secretary Andang Wardoyo confirmed the spike in COVID-19 cases in the regency, stating that this was simply due to the government’s expanded efforts in tracing and tracking.
Read also: Some regions in C. Java don’t test for COVID-19 to maintain ‘green zone’ status: Ganjar
However, Andang said the public was becoming less disciplined in obeying COVID-19 health protocols.
“People are still organizing events that could generate crowds, such as religious activities like Quran recitals. I have ordered for an evaluation to see if we have to impose stricter measures, such as limiting attendees to 50 people at the most,” he said as quoted by kompas.id.
Wonosobo has five isolation units and three referral hospitals, namely KRT Setjonegoro Wonosobo Regional General Hospital, Wonosobo Islamic Hospital and Muhammadiyah Wonosobo Hospital.
According to Andang, the hospitals have enough capacity to accommodate new patients since a large number of asymptomatic patients are in self-isolation at home.
Since Wonosobo does not have its own laboratory to conduct polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, all test samples have to be processed at laboratories at Purwokerto, Salatiga, Semarang, Surakarta or Yogyakarta.
“The results will come out within three to four days, even though we expected them to come out in a day since there are some people who neglected the health protocols while waiting for their swab test results,” Andang said. (dpk)
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.
