Indonesia's Daily Covid-19 Cases Continue to Decline by 41.9%

Only 78,626 people underwent Covid-19 testing in Indonesia on August 18, 2021. This figure represents a 41.9% decrease compared to August 11, 2021, when 135,459 people were tested. The number of Covid-19 tests conducted in Indonesia is far from the government's target of 300,000 to 400,000 people per day.

The average daily Covid-19 tests conducted between August 11 and 18, 2021, was 108,192 people per day. In the preceding week, the average was 132,930 people per day. This means the average daily Covid-19 tests in Indonesia decreased by 18.60% within a week.

In total, 20,070,696 people have been tested for Covid-19 up to yesterday. Compared to the population, this equates to 74,335 tests per million people.

Siti Nadia Tarmizi, Director of Prevention and Control of Directly Transmissible Infectious Diseases at the Ministry of Health, stated that the decrease in daily Covid-19 cases has implications for the number of close contacts tested. "Perhaps because cases have decreased, tracing and testing have also decreased," Nadia said, as quoted by CNNIndonesia.com on Monday (August 16).

The low testing coverage could lead to many undetected coronavirus infections. This situation could make the spread of the coronavirus increasingly uncontrollable. The Ministry of Health's report notes that the total number of coronavirus cases in Indonesia has reached 3,908,247. 3.09% of these cases resulted in death, and 88.11% have recovered.

Therefore, the government needs to increase the rate of coronavirus testing. The public is also urged to diligently implement the 3M health protocols: wearing masks, maintaining distance, and washing hands with soap.