Indonesia continues to record a high COVID-19 death rate as it marks six months since the first confirmed case was officially recorded in the country, with the latest figure of 4.2 percent still above the global death rate of 3.34 percent, a spokesman from the country’s COVID-19 task force reported today.
Spokesman Wiku Adisasmito said the country’s daily count has been surging lately, with a weekly average of almost 33 percent increase. The highest caseload spikes recently were recorded in West Java, followed by Central Java, East Kalimantan, Jakarta, and East Java.
“Therefore, the surge must be suppressed. We still have to do more massive testing, but the positive cases must also be suppressed,” Wiku said at a press conference yesterday.
Wiku added that the high national death rate resulted from increasing weekly deaths reported from different regions, such as Bengkulu and Central Java, which reported increases at 7.29 percent and 7.18 percent, respectively. As of today, the total number of deaths to COVID-19 in Indonesia stands at 7,616.
The Southeast Asian country has regularly reported a high death rate since the early days of the pandemic. In April, for example, the death rate hovered at around 8 percent, and it has progressively declined since then.
Despite the alarming spikes in numbers, Wiku said there’s still good news.
“Up until September 1, 2020, the number of active cases in Indonesia has reached 42,009. That is 23.7 percent [of total cases], while the average of global active cases is 26.6 percent,” he said.
Furthermore, the recovery rate for COVID-19 patients in Indonesia reportedly reached 128,057 cases or 72.1 percent, which Wiku said is better and above the global average of 69.97 percent.
Provinces with the highest recovery rates are Central Sulawesi (90.78 percent) and Bangka Belitung islands (90.79), with the lowest being Aceh (15.38 percent) and Jambi (49.34%).
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