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Death tally omission throws spotlight over data problems in Indonesia
The recent omission of the daily number of fatalities from the government’s assessment of the multi-tiered public activity restrictions (PPKM) has thrown the spotlight on the government’s COVID-19 data management, which mired in problems since the pandemic began.
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This aerial picture shows the graves of victims of the COVID-19 coronavirus at the Rorotan cemetery in Jakarta on August 4, 2021. (AFP/Bay Ismoyo)
T
he recent omission of the daily number of fatalities from the government’s assessment of the multi-tiered public activity restrictions (PPKM) has thrown the spotlight on the government’s COVID-19 data management, which remains mired in problems more than a year into the pandemic.
On Monday, Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister Luhut Panjdaitan, who leads the PPKM implementation in Java and Bali, said the government had excluded the tally of deaths from its assessment to determine the PPKM status of specific areas, stating that the current data were an "accumulation" of data from previous days.
Following criticism, the government was quick to clarify that the move was only a temporary measure. Office of Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Ministry spokesperson Jodi Mahardi said on Wednesday that the daily figures on fatalities would again be included in the government’s assessment once the data had been updated.
Read also: "It's temporary": Govt clarifies decision to omit death toll in curbs assessment
National COVID-19 task force head of data and information technology Dewi Nur Aisyah admitted that there were discrepancies in the government’s COVID-19 database, with some regional administrations failing to regularly update the central government on COVID-19 deaths and recoveries.
The government’s COVID-19 data are managed centrally by the Health Ministry under its National All Record (NAR) system. The ministry relies on regular updates from regional health agencies to keep the database up to date.
“Some regions do not regularly update their data, particularly the recovery and death tallies,” Dewi said in a Webinar on Thursday. “We will push for more data synchronization between the Health Ministry and the regional health agencies so that we can see fewer gaps [in the database].”
