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Indonesia’s COVID-19 testing capacity approaching WHO’s target: Task force

COVID-19 testing capacity in Indonesia has slightly increased on a weekly basis as the country aims to reach 267,000 people per week to get tested as targeted by the World Health Organization (WHO).

News Desk (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Thu, December 10, 2020

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Indonesia’s COVID-19 testing capacity approaching WHO’s target: Task force Residents undergo a swab test at the Genomik Solidaritas Indonesia (GSI) Laboratory in Cilandak, South Jakarta, on Nov. 2. (JP/Dhoni Setiawan)

COVID-19 testing capacity in Indonesia has slightly increased on a weekly basis as the country aims to test 267,000 people per week, as targeted by the World Health Organization (WHO).

According to the national COVID-19 task force, Indonesia’s weekly testing capacity reached 96.35 percent of the WHO’s target in the first week of December. The WHO has set a target for each country to test one suspected case per 1,000 head of population per week.

Last week, Indonesia managed to test 244,739 people, or 90.64 percent of the WHO's target, reported the task force. 

Nevertheless, task force spokesman Wiku Adisasmita said that with the increasing COVID-19 testing capacity, Indonesia was recording an increasing number of confirmed cases, meaning that the spread of the coronavirus in the country remained uncontrollable. 

“Please understand [the situation] and be cooperative. Do not waste all of our hard work,” he said as quoted by antaranews.com on Tuesday.

Wiku also urged every regional administration to coordinate with the national COVID-19 task force, especially if they faced a shortage of medical equipment to treat patients. 

He also said every region had to be able to meet its logistics needs in order to reduce COVID-19 transmission effectively.

“I need every region to report to the central task force immediately if you are experiencing shortages of medical supplies, reagent, or personal protective equipment. Make sure that each region has sufficient logistical supplies to treat COVID-19 patients properly,” Wiku said.

Read also: Without govt support, COVID-19 testing remains low in Indonesia

As of Wednesday, Indonesia had seen more than 590,000 cumulative confirmed cases, including over 487,000 recoveries and at least 18,000 deaths. 

As the pandemic situation in Indonesia keeps spiraling down, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has threatened regional administrations with a “stern warning” if the rise in infections continues unabated, especially regions that have been seeing a continuous increase in daily cases.

“I’ve said this before, if we have another increase [in the future], even a slight one, [I will] issue an immediate warning because we do not want this situation to drag on,” he said last week.

Jokowi also acknowledged that Indonesia’s COVID-19 death toll had exceeded the average case fatality rate (CFR) for the coronavirus since the country’s current CFR is at 3.1 percent, which is above the global average of 2.32 percent. 

On the contrary, a statistical report by the government published on Nov. 30 revealed that Indonesia’s COVID-19 recovery rate had reached 83.6 percent, which surpassed the global average of 69.03 percent. The report also stated that Indonesia was seeing an improvement in its active case rate. 

Furthermore, official records previously showed that Indonesia had an active case rate of 16.69 percent in September. This number dropped to 14.26 percent in October and then recorded a slight downtick to 13.75 percent in November.

“This means that we are improving each month. Our active case rate is also better than the average [rate] of active cases globally, which is 28.55 percent,” Jokowi said, adding that he felt optimistic about the nation’s COVID-19 mitigation and control efforts. (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.

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