PRESS RELEASE

MOMENTUM FOR IMPROVING COVID-19 DATA & TRACKING EXCESSIVE DEATHS AFTER THE THIRD WAVE REMEDIES

The pandemic situation in Indonesia appears to be entering a new phase with a number of epidemiological parameters increasingly under control. Unfortunately, there are still many critical notes regarding the government's seriousness, especially in efforts to strengthen testing, tracing and treatment, as well as vaccination.

The narrative that is developing from the current situation has an impact on people increasingly neglecting to comply with health protocols, especially avoiding crowds and wearing masks. This is further exacerbated by the emergence of many transition-to-endemic narratives which cloud public perceptions regarding the current health crisis.

The emerging image of improvements in epidemiological parameters cannot be recognized directly. There are a number of considerations, one of which is that daily cases are still increasing at more than a hundred people, even though the trend shows a decline.

Based on data from the Covid-19 Task Force, the trend of additional daily cases shows a drastic decline of 9 times since the beginning of April 2022. This condition must continue to be maintained with vigilance through various preventive measures. Not only do the number of daily new cases and the number of active cases continue to experience a downward trend, the number of monthly deaths for the April-May 2022 period fell by almost 90 percent. Even so, it is still quite unfortunate that the number of COVID-19 deaths continues and has not yet reached zero.

The current COVID-19 pandemic situation, which is relatively more conducive, should be a moment to improve systems or services, such as collecting data or recording the number of deaths related to COVID-19. Differences in death rates continue to exist in various regions, as has been regularly reviewed by the LaporCovid-19 team in previous press releases.

Not to mention that health workers who have died have not been properly recorded. Apart from that, the government should also start investigating a more accurate number of deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic, including the number of deaths that occurred outside health facilities during the second wave of the pandemic a year ago. Measuring the number of deaths further is important considering the release of findings predicting the number of COVID-19 deaths in the world, including Indonesia.

Latest report? WHO at the beginning of May 2022 indicated that the number of excess deaths related to COVID-19 in Indonesia from 2020 to December 2021 was predicted to be 8 times the published number of deaths. This means that there are around 1 million deaths related to COVID-19. The significant difference between? The data officially published by the government with WHO findings shows the weakness of death data collection. This also shows the weakness of the pandemic control surveillance system in Indonesia. Therefore, WHO's findings need to be used as a lesson for improving pandemic surveillance data in the future.

Deaths that occurred during the pandemic were experienced by all age groups and genders. The excess death data released by WHO also illustrates the seriousness of the pandemic situation in general. Disease outbreaks will not choose who their victims are, because every individual has the risk of being infected or experiencing worsening symptoms and death.

Graph of excess deaths in Indonesia by age and gender in 2020

Graph of excess deaths in Indonesia by age and gender in 2021

Reference

• https://www.who.int/data/stories/global-excess-deaths-associated-with-covid-19-january-2020-december-2021

• https://worldhealthorg.shinyapps.io/covid19excess/
• https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/coronavirus-data

Contact Person:

Said Fariz Hibban (LaporCovid19) – 6281527440489

This press release can be downloaded via the following link