Jakarta – The national COVID-19 task force has called on regional administrations not to let their guards down even if their region has been downgraded to an orange or green zone.
According to task force spokesperson Wiku Adisasmito, there are currently 34 regions and cities that have been consistently classified as orange zones, meaning there is a medium risk of COVID-19 infection for six consecutive weeks.
They comprise 12 regions/cities in North Sumatra, 11 in Central Java and 11 in East Java.
Some regions and cities are getting closer to reaching yellow zone status, meaning there is a low risk of COVID-19 transmission. They are Rejang Lebong regency in Bengkulu; Madiuna and Lamongan in East Java; Yogyakarta; Gunung Mas regency in Central Kalimantan; Donggala regency in Central Sulawesi; South Buton and South Konawe regency in Southeast Sulawesi; West Lombok regency in West Nusa Tenggara; Ternate city in North Maluku and Maybrat regency in West Papua.
Three regions are on the verge of being reclassified as red zones. They are Langsa city in Aceh, West Pasaman regency in West Sumatra and Karanganyar regency in Central Java.
"Do not be complacent just because your area is not a red zone. Orange zones are still dangerous and the risk of transmission remains. If the situation continues without significant treatment, these areas have the potential to become red zones again," Wiku said in a presser aired on the Presidential Secretariat's YouTube channel on Tuesday.
"Our target is for all regions to become green zones, meaning they have zero infections for four weeks in a row and a 100 percent recovery rate," Wiku said.
Therefore, he called on regional administrations to continue stepping up their testing, tracing and treatment (3T) efforts, while proactively engaging with the central government whenever they need equipment such as reagent for testing, medicines and many other things.
He considered that many regional administrations had started to be complacent once their regions downgraded their COVID-19 risk zone.
"It is so unfortunate to see that more than 50 percent of regencies and cities that were previously green zones have now become yellow zones, and some orange zones have been reclassified as red zones this week," he said as quoted by kompas.com.
Wiku explained that this week the task force had recorded that out of more than 400 regencies and cities throughout Indonesia, 336, or 65 percent of them, are classed as orange zones.
Therefore, he encouraged regional administrations to return their focus to handling COVID-19 so that daily infections can be brought down and eliminated eventually.
He further revealed that between Oct. 4 and 11 the five provinces that recorded the highest raises in new daily infections were Central Java, West Java, West Papua, South Sulawesi and Central Sulawesi.
"For those provinces, please evaluate health protocol implementations. Getting onto the list of the big five in COVID-19 positive cases is not something to be proud of," said Wiku. (iwa)