Jakarta (ANTARA) - Spokesperson for the Ministry of Health Mohamad Syahril has said that the 31 percent increase in COVID-19 cases in the last three weeks was still deemed reasonable and under control by health officials.
Earlier on Wednesday, the COVID-19 Handling Task Force reported that Indonesia's weekly COVID-19 cases have increased by 31 percent, or up by 500 cases.
"We are still in the midst of a pandemic. It means the virus is still present among us, and it may have the potential to infect or re-infect people who have contracted COVID-19 before," Syahril said, when contacted by telephone here on Thursday.
The increase in cases was reasonable because the SARS-CoV-2 virus is still present in the community, noted Syahril.
He noted that the COVID-19 pandemic situation in Indonesia was still under control.
Syahril said that other factors must be considered to evaluate the COVID-19 pandemic situation in the country, for example, the hospital bed occupancy rate (BOR).
He stated that Indonesia's hospital BOR is still below the WHO safe limit of 5 percent.
In addition, he affirmed that the COVID-19 death rate was still low, which remains below the average of five deaths per day or below the WHO safe limit of three percent of the total cases.
"It means that these cases did not cause many deaths, like the Delta wave earlier," he added.
Then, in terms of positivity rate, it is also still below the WHO safe limit of five percent, he pointed out.
"The community is asked to remain calm. The increase is still below the WHO standard, and other indicators are still under control," he remarked.
The first case of COVID-19 in Indonesia was confirmed in March 2020. According to data from the COVID-19 Handling Task Force, as of June 9, 2022 the nation has recorded 6,057,142 COVID-19 cases, 5,897,022 recoveries, and 156,622 deaths.
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