Jokowi wants wider testing as Indonesia cases top 75,000

JAKARTA • Indonesian President Joko Widodo wants to ramp up coronavirus testing by 50 per cent to 30,000 daily as infections exceeded 75,000 in South-east Asia's most populous nation.

Mr Joko, who is popularly known as Jokowi, instructed his ministers yesterday to boost the nationwide testing capacity from a previous target of 20,000 a day by opening more laboratories, especially in eight areas that include the capital region of Jakarta and neighbouring West and East Java.

"I want us to intensify the testing, tracing and treatment with priorities in eight provinces," he told members of his Cabinet before the meeting.

The President also said the coronavirus outbreak in Indonesia is expected to peak next month or in September, the state news agency Antara reported yesterday, two to three months later than earlier projected.

"Based on data, the peak is (now) estimated to be in August or September, that's the latest estimate I received, but if we don't do something the numbers could be different," Mr Joko said, Antara news agency reported.

A government adviser had said in April that Covid-19 cases were likely to peak in May or June, with the number of infections expected to reach around 95,000.

Mr Joko said he was pushing his ministers to work harder to control the spread of the virus, which had infected 76,981 people in the South-east Asian country as of yesterday, with 3,656 fatalities.

A significant new cluster of infections had emerged just last week at a military training centre in West Java, where 1,262 cadets and trainers have tested positive for the coronavirus.

Last month, Mr Joko said that he was ready to reshuffle ministers or even disband government agencies which he feels have not done enough to fight the coronavirus outbreak.

Meanwhile, the government is considering sanctions for people who are found to be violating health protocols, such as not wearing masks in public places.

Jakarta had extended a transition period to exit from a partial lockdown by two weeks to the middle of this month, as the city continued to report hundreds of new coronavirus cases a day.

It posted a record daily spike on Sunday.

The pandemic has hit Indonesia harder than the 1997 Asian financial crisis, battering small and big businesses alike, Mr Joko said last month.

Mr Achmad Yurianto, a health ministry official, said at a press conference yesterday that in the past 24 hours, six provinces - Jakarta, West Java, Central Java, East Java, South Sulawesi and Papua - recorded high numbers of cases.

Last Thursday, when the country reported the highest daily number of cases, Mr Joko called the situation a "red signal".

Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has urged Indonesia to perform more Covid-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests on people suspected to have the illness.

Prioritising PCR tests, a key test used to determine whether an individual is infected, would mean improved diagnoses of suspected Covid-19 cases, the WHO said in its latest situation report for Indonesia.

BLOOMBERG, REUTERS

THE JAKARTA POST/ASIA NEWS NETWORK