Since the beginning of the outbreak 10 months ago, Jakarta has remained the epicenter of the country’s crisis. The capital city’s positivity rate – the share of tests conducted that yield positive results – has ranged from 10 to 17 percent since mid-December 2020, far above the World Health Organization’s recommended rate of below 5 percent.

In the past month, Jakarta has recorded a number of four-digit daily case tallies and, on at least four occasions, has exceeded 2,000 per day. On Saturday, the second day of the new year, 1,895 new infections were reported in the city, bringing Jakarta’s cumulative case toll to 187,586, accounting for about one fourth of the national figure.

Attributing the surge in known cases to an increase in testing is no longer possible as Jakarta has been testing more than 8,000 people a week – eight times the WHO standard. The city is clearly in dire need of extraordinary measures to protect its citizens from the virus.

Without bold action, the city’s public health system will be at risk of a breakdown. Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin recently listed Jakarta among the regions whose hospital bed occupancy rate had reached the critical level of 70 percent.

Even if Jakarta adds more hospital beds, it is still facing a scarcity of health workers. As Indonesian Hospital Association (PERSI) Jakarta chairman Koesmedi Priharto put it, ensuring sufficient medical workers is impossible.

Now, just after the long New Year break, Jakarta is anticipating another spike in cases, just as it experienced after the two previous long weekends in August and October, when cases rose by 77.3 percent and 59.6 percent respectively.

Popular

Much ado about asset forfeiture

The benefit of the doubt has expired

Mass poisonings cast doubt on free meals reforms