Spokesperson for the COVID-19 Task Force Professor Wiku Adisasmito believes that the COVID-19 pandemic that has protracted in 2021 provided resources for Indonesia to face more dynamic challenges.

“The COVID-19 pandemic throughout 2021 has provided resources and experience for us to face dynamic challenges amid the pandemic, including the Omicron variant,” Adisasmito stated on Tuesday.

Based on the rate of positive cases this year, Indonesia has experienced two spikes in cases. The first surge started at the end of 2020 that continued to increase and reached its peak on January 25, 2021.

The first spike in cases was successfully reduced for 15 consecutive weeks to 70.5 percent, which was accompanied by the micro implementation of Restrictions on Community Mobility (PPKM).

The second spike occurred in July due to the Delta variant that spread during the community’s high mobility during Eid.

“The policy to forbid homecoming during Eid was not sufficient to reduce the people’s mobility at that time. As a result, cases have increased significantly, reaching a peak of 1,200, from the lowest point in May,” Adisasmito pointed out.

The spokesperson noted the second spike had been lowered for 23 consecutive weeks since the second peak. Moreover, the number of cases have been reduced to 99.6 percent, much lower than the addition of positive cases in January.

“It means that if we can achieve a 100-percent decline from the highest peak, then there will be no more additional positive cases, and we can be free from COVID-19,” he explained.

In line with the decline in positive cases, good progress was also recorded in terms of the percentage of active cases, the percentage of treated patients, and the number of deaths.

The percentage of active cases, which had peaked in the second spike of 18.84 percent, is currently only at 0.11 percent. Meanwhile, the percentage of patients cured, which had reached the lowest rate of 79.28 percent, had successfully increased to 96.51 percent.

The same was also observed in terms of the cases of deaths. Since the pandemic struck until now, 144,063 people had died from COVID-19. In 2021, the daily death count had reached the highest point during the second spike in cases, which had claimed 2,048 lives in one day.

“As of December 27, the daily mortality figure has dropped drastically to eight people in a day and even reached the lowest rate of one death per day on November 28,” he stated.

Adisasmita noted that in terms of the positivity rate, Indonesia had also shown good progress.

“During the second peak, the positivity rate could reach 33.25 percent, and now, it was only at 0.07 percent,” he concluded.

Source: Antara News