JAKARTA, May 30 (Xinhua): Concerns about an increase in positive cases of Covid-19 in Indonesia following the Aidilfitri (Hari Raya) may come true as the government has predicted that there would be a rise in the cases by 50 per cent in mid-June.
Chairman of the National Committee for Handling Covid-19 and Economic Recovery cum Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hartarto said that currently there is a trend of increasing active cases of Covid-19, which must be watched out after the Eid festivities.
The daily confirmed active cases began to show an increasing trend in recent days in the country. According to the Health Ministry on Saturday, the Covid-19 cases in the country rose by 6,565 within one day to 1,809,926, with the death toll adding by 162 to 50,262.
"The rate of the national active cases stands at 5.4 per cent, lower than the global figure of 8.8 per cent. However, we need to anticipate the increasing trend of active cases since the past week," the senior minister said.
A lesson from the previous long holidays is that the spike in cases occurred in four to five weeks after the holidays, Airlangga was quoted by Antara news agency as saying here Thursday.
Airlangga pointed out that based on data as of May 26,55.6 per cent of these active cases were found in Java Island and 22.9 percent in Sumatra Island.
Given the fact, Airlangga decided to extend the micro-scale restrictions of people's activities from June 1 to 14, and expand the areas that will implement the policy to four provinces, namely Maluku, North Maluku, Gorontalo, and West Sulawesi.
"Thus, as of June 1,2021, a total of all 34 provinces have been determined to implement the policy," he said, adding that the policy will be carried out based on an instruction of the home affairs minister.
After monitoring for two weeks after Eid festivities, the government will continue to closely observe the progress of the cases in the next two or three weeks, and tighten travel requirements after the holidays, Airlangga explained.
Previously, Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi said that during the period from April 22 to May 14 (before and during the Eid holidays), there were 3.9 million passengers traveling by land, sea and air.
In the May 15-24 period (after the Eid holidays), there were around 2.5 million passengers using public transportation means. This condition showed the potential for a surge in the public mobility.
Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture Muhadjir Effendy, meanwhile, said that the government will anticipate a possible spike in cases of COVID-19 transmission in June, following increased mobility of residents after the Eid al-Fitr.
Effendy called on the local governments whose areas could be sources of the spread of COVID-19 to check the implementation of the policy to control the transmission of the virus.
In addition to anticipating a spike in Covid-19 cases in June, he said the government has been on the alert of the spread of new variants of the virus found in Britain, South Africa and India.
Meanwhile, the Indonesian Medical Association's Chairman Daeng M Faqih called on about 200,000 doctors in the country to be prepared until the end of July to face the possibility of a soaring number of Covid-19 cases after the Eid holidays.
"We urge all doctors in Indonesia to be ready until the end of July 2021 and be prepared if they are needed. We pray that the surge would not be as big as that in January 2021," Faqih said at a working meeting with legislators in Jakarta on Thursday.
However, Faqih did not rely only on certain specialist doctors, who are limited in number, such as pulmonary specialists and anesthetists because if there is a surge, they would not be able to handle the Covid-19 cases.
The association has issued a policy that all doctors in Indonesia should be able to tackle Covid-19 cases and they will have special trainings in efforts to handle the disease, he added. - Xinhua
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