West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil has blamed Thursday’s spike of 1,648 daily cases in the province on data discrepancies.

The governor said that 1,000 of the 1,648 cases reported by the Health Ministry came from outdated data. 

“So we can not call it a surge,” Ridwan said on Friday, adding a similar issue was reported in Central Java.

He explained that in order to submit a case report, the regional administration had to pass through two steps, with the first step involving reports on polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing and the second involving the submission of all results to the COVID-19 data system, which is connected to the Health Ministry’s server.

“Yesterday I saw that Depok had actually uploaded 100 cases, but it failed to submit them. Some [other regions] also reported 100 cases but it came out different when it was announced,” Ridwan said.

He said he hoped the ministry could improve the data matching system, adding that he opted to use data submitted by cities and regencies for COVID-19 handling in West Java. 

As of Friday, West Java’s COVID-19 Information and Coordination Center reported a total of 55,807 confirmed cases across 27 regencies and cities with 46,402 recoveries and 947 deaths.

Read also: Task force to synchronize data as regions find discrepancies

The region also saw 11,325 new confirmed cases from Nov. 27 to Dec. 3, marking an average of 4,770 daily cases.

On Thursday, Indonesia broke its own single-day record for daily COVID-19 infections with 8,369 new cases. The latest spike brought a total 557,877 confirmed cases to the nationwide tally, including 17,355 fatalities and 462,553 recoveries.

Papua recorded the highest single-day jump in the archipelago with 1,775 additional cases. Significant spikes were also reported in West Java and Jakarta with 1,648 and 1,153 cases respectively.

National COVID-19 task force spokesperson Wiku Adisasmito said the high number was caused by a lag in real-time data synchronization between the central government and regional administrations.

“For instance, Papua has reported 1,755 new cases, which is the cumulative of positive cases logged since Nov. 19 until today,” Wiku said during an online press conference on Thursday.

Meanwhile, amid the government’s robust campaign on coronavirus health protocols, a survey conducted between Oct. 28 and Nov. 1 indicated a declining trend in the public compliance rate with the face mask and physical distancing policies. 

According to antaranews.com, an online survey by the government over the long holiday weekend at the end of October found on Nov. 1 that 59.32 percent of respondents said they wore masks and 43.46 percent said they physically distanced. Both figures saw a continuous decline through to Nov. 27. (adi/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.