Fajar Pebrianto, Jakarta – Deputy Chief of the Covid-19 Mitigation Committee Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, predicted that the number of Covid-19 Omicron cases will continue to increase.

"Maybe today it can reach 40 thousand," Luhut said in the 96th Nahdlatul Ulama anniversary on Saturday, February 5, 2022.

On Friday, February 4, 2022, the number of confirmed cases increased by 32,211 cases, a number that is higher compared to Thursday with 27,197 confirmed cases.

In an official report, the Covid-19 task force reported that the number of active Covid-19 cases had reached 140 thousand, which is 24 thousand higher compared to the previous number. The number of recovered patients also increase to 7,000 while the number of fatalities reached up to 42 people.

So far, there are three regions claimed to have the highest number of active cases. The first is Jakarta with 55 thousand cases, West Java with 23 thousand cases, and Banten with 23 thousand cases.

Despite the increase, Luhut, who is also the PPKM coordinator for Java and Bali, requested the people not to panic because data showed that recovery rate from the disease is relatively quick. However, Luhut warned elderly people, people who had not received vaccine shots, and people with comorbidity.

Luhut said that based on the government's data, most of the fatal patients come from the three aforementioned groups. "For the next two weeks or one month, if [someone] fulfills such criteria, better to stay at home for a while," Luhut said.

Source: https://en.tempo.co/read/1557706/covid-19-cases-rises-luhut-probably-reach-40-thousan