Jakarta's COVID-19 Positivity Rate Falls: What's the Trend in Daily Testing?

The Governor of Jakarta, Anies Baswedan, stated that the Covid-19 positivity rate in the capital city continues to decline, reaching below 10% in the last week. However, data from the DKI Jakarta Province shows that the number of daily Covid-19 tests in the region is also decreasing.

During the period of August 10-17, 2021, the average daily coronavirus tests in DKI Jakarta were only 12,645 people. Meanwhile, in the previous week, the average daily Covid-19 tests in the capital city reached 17,770 people.

Since August 6, 2021, the daily positivity rate in Jakarta has been below 10%, precisely at 9.8%. Then, the figure continued to fall to 6.1% on August 16, 2021. However, it rose again to 9.2% on Indonesia's 76th Independence Day.

The safe threshold set by the World Health Organization (WHO) is 5%. "Now we are approaching the safe threshold," said Anies, as quoted by Katadata.co.id, Tuesday, August 17, 2021.

DKI Jakarta remains one of the provinces with the highest number of Covid-19 cases in Indonesia. The number reached 841,618 cases, or about 21.6% of the total Covid-19 cases in the country, which amounted to 3.90 million cases on August 18, 2021.

To prevent the spread of the coronavirus, the public is urged to diligently implement the 3M health protocols: wearing masks, maintaining distance, and washing hands with soap. In addition, the public is encouraged to avoid crowds and reduce mobility.