Speaker of the House Dr. (H. C.) Puan Maharani delivering a speech at the Parliament Complex, Photo: Geral/Man

Speaker of the House Dr. (H. C.) Puan Maharani cautioned the government to anticipate a spike in COVID-19 cases following the long weekend of Islamic New Year holidays from 20 to 23 August 2020. During the holiday, she received information that many people traveled across cities or visited some tourist destinations, allowing some COVID-19 high risk activities to take place.

"We ask the government to increase precautionary measures to curb the spread of COVID-19, particularly considering the high number of people traveling across cities or visiting some tourist destinations during the long holiday," the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) Politician said in a press release received by Parlementaria on Monday (24/8/2020).

According to the Indonesian toll road operator Jasa Marga, as many as 153,806 vehicles returned to Jakarta after the Islamic New Year holiday on Saturday (22/8/2020). The figure shows a 41.4-percent increase compared to normal times. The post-holiday traffic peaked on Sunday (24/8/2020) when controlled traffic zones were in effect to ease traffic congestion to Jakarta, including in the Puncak Route, Bogor, West Java.

"The House asks the government to continue disseminating precautionary measures to curb the spread of COVID-19 by maintaining health and personal hygiene, physical distancing, avoiding crowds, and taking medical tests. Furthermore, contact tracing also needs to be improved, especially at the neighborhood units (RT) and community units (RW) levels, to monitor the travel history of those who traveled during the holidays. We need to be cautioned of potential new clusters at the family level," Maharani said.

The COVID-19 Handling and National Economic Recovery Committee report shows that as of 23 August 2020, there have been 2,302 recovered patients, compared to 2,037 new positive cases. The number of active cases in Indonesia to date is 39,355. At the national scale, there have been a total 107,500 recovered COVID-19 patients, 75,552 suspects, and 22,152 specimens.

COVID-19 cases in Indonesia so far have been found in 34 provinces and 485 districts/cities. In terms of new positive cases, as of 23 August 2020, the cumulative number has reached 153,535. Meanwhile, the 86 new deaths have been recorded along with the of 6,680 total cases. The current death rate due to COVID-19 in Indonesia is at 4.4 percent.

"We understand the public's concern over the COVID-19. The government must be able to improve its COVID-19 mitigation strategy, including through incentives to support the health care of medical and non-medical personnel providing care for COVID-19 patients," added the first woman speaker of the Indonesian Parliament. (sf)