President Jokowi Instructs Governors to Monitor COVID-19 Cases in Their Respective Regions

President Jokowi stated his directives to governors virtually from the Bogor Presidential Palace, West Java Province, Tuesday (1/9). (Photo by: Public Relations/Agung).

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo instructed governors to monitor data and figures on COVID-19 cases in their respective regions due to an increasing trend of confirmed cases, both in Europe and Asia.

“We have to be careful, be careful, in our country even though there has been an increase in confirmed cases in some areas, but when compared to other countries, Indonesia’s position is still relatively under control and this is what we must maintain: the control, management; so the COVID-19 is really still in a controlled position,” the President stated his directives to governors in a Limited Meeting on Facing the COVID-19 Pandemic and National Economic Recovery held virtually from the Bogor Presidential Palace, West Java Province, Tuesday (1/9).

As of 31 August, the President said, the confirmed cases have reached 175,000 out of 2.23 million tests that had been carried out. The 72.1% case recovery rate in August surpassed the 15% case recovery rate in April. This development is better or higher than the world average of 69%.

“The number of active cases or still under treatment also decreased from 77% in April to 23.69% in August. This is better than the world average of 27%. But for the death case, be careful about the case fatality rate in Indonesia, even though it has decreased from 7.83% in April to 4.2% this month, we still have big homework to lower it again,” the President stated, adding that the fatality rate in Indonesia is still higher than the global fatality rate of 3.36%.

To that end, the President reminded them to be vigilant so that the Government does not lose control in handling the spread of COVID-19.

“The 77% active cases in April dropped to 23.7% in August, then the case fatality rate, from 7.8% in April to 4.2% in August. Also, this is the development of daily cases as of yesterday, 31 August, the number of active cases was 41,420 or 23.7%,” the President said.

The addition of confirmed cases, as of yesterday, according to the President, reached 2,743 and the number of recovered cases reached 72.1% or 125,959 while the number of death cases reached 7,417 or 4.2%. “If we look at the development of confirmed cases at the national level, especially for the percentage of deaths in April, the figure was high then continued to decline in August at the position of 4.27%,” he said.

The Governors were ordered to continue to take measures so that the percentage of deaths significantly declines every day. The percentage of recovery in March was still very low, but in August it had reached 72.7%. Likewise, the confirmed case rate on 31 August, which was at the top then sloped, must be further lowered.

On the development of COVID-19 in Indonesia by province as of 31 August, the President said that the data are monitored every day. “Be careful on those high numbers, I instructed governors to really work hard with the existing Task Force so that the numbers can be reduced and if there are problems that needs the care of the Central Government, convey them, especially to the committee and task force,” the President explained. (TGH/EN)

Translated by: Fairuzzamani Inayatillah
Reviewed by: Mia M. Bonaedy