Reflection on Two Years of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Indonesia: Prevention of Neglected Dangers, Neglected Death Data Collection
March 7 2022 – Two years on, the COVID-19 pandemic has become part of the daily lives of Indonesian people. Various kinds of bitter memories in the form of the death of valuable people, hard struggles in various lines of social movement, and emotional stress due to the COVID-19 situation which is full of uncertainty in Indonesia have haunted various sectors of people's lives.
PRESS RELEASE
Reflection on Two Years of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Indonesia: Prevention of Neglected Dangers, Neglected Death Data Collection
March 7, 2022 – Two years since the COVID-19 pandemic has become part of the daily lives of Indonesian people. Various kinds of bitter memories in the form of the death of valuable people, hard struggles in various lines of social movement, and emotional stress due to the COVID-19 situation which is full of uncertainty in Indonesia have haunted various sectors of people's lives. The first cases of COVID-19, which were first announced on March 3 2020 by the Indonesian government, have now doubled to 5,723,858 cases as of March 5 2022, which the public never imagined from the start that this condition would drag on for so long and be so complicated.
To date, the number of positive COVID-19 death cases has reached 160,569 people based on COVID-19 data per province, while the number of deaths published by the central government still states 149,918 people. This shows a difference in the release of the COVID-19 death rate of 10,651 people. It is felt that this difference in the number of publications will continue to exist and in the end has the potential to be neglected for various reasons. However, this number does not include the number of probable deaths which has reached at least 28 thousand people and isoman deaths up to February 2022 of 3017 people which have not been included in central government publications. At least 5,813 people have died with positive COVID-19 status during the third wave of COVID-19 in Indonesia until March 5 2022. Apart from that. The LaporCovid-19 team also received reports that two people died while self-isolating/outside health facilities during February 2022.
Trends in Covid-19 Cases and Deaths in Indonesia in the Last 1 Month
From February 4 2022 to March 5 2022, the death trend continued to consistently increase as shown in the trend graph of the number of Indonesian COVID-19 deaths above. The government created an atmosphere of worry and vigilance that was not so intensive for the sake of public safety. Even though the number of daily positive deaths as of March 5 has increased 6x since February 5 2022 and 80x since January 5 2022. This shows that hidden dangers have transformed into real dangers that should be addressed seriously in order to fight for zero deaths in Indonesian society due to COVID-19. However, this danger has been ignored and is considered not something to worry about. Moreover, as of March 7 2022, foreign tourists have started to be welcomed into Bali easily. This certainly has the potential to worsen the situation in the third wave of the pandemic in Indonesia, with daily new cases still exceeding 20 thousand per day for the last two weeks.
Lack of Seriousness in Improving COVID-19 Data Collection
Two years of the Covid-19 pandemic with various losses and disadvantages should provide learning and immediately trigger improvements in various lines, including in data collection. Good and transparent data collection will help see the real situation more accurately so that we can make the right decisions in making policies for each community in each region.
Data collection on COVID-19 in Indonesia collected by the Indonesian Ministry of Health is then presented on the website https://covid19.go.id/peta-sebaran Since the beginning of the pandemic until now, it has only been limited to presenting a dashboard with general information. The parameters that can be seen are quite limited. Historical data can only be enjoyed through interactive graphic presentations that are available, but raw data is not available that presents COVID-19 statistics in Indonesia since the first day the pandemic was announced with complete data parameters, city/district and province, as well as various other types of integrated data collection packages. National COVID-19 data cannot be downloaded easily, so the site OurWorldinData is an alternative for downloading Indonesian COVID-19 data easily, quickly, accessible and the quality of data collection is neat enough so that it is comfortable enough for further processing by researchers, academics or journalists.
Not to mention the issue of national, regional and local versions of COVID-19 data collection, showing significant differences in numbers, especially in the number of deaths parameter. This is a long term homework in improving transparent data so that we must continue to monitor more valid data so that it can be reported to a wide audience. This is also what KawalCovid-19 and LaporCovid-19 have been doing back up Crowdsource-based data collection on Covid-19 in Indonesia from city/district and province websites throughout Indonesia. This should be the responsibility of the Indonesian government to fix this.
|
Data Collection Parameters |
Indonesia |
Malaysia |
|
Site/Channel presenting COVID-19 statistical data and information |
In the form of a dashboard of daily COVID-19 numbers and graphs |
In the form of a dashboard of numbers, graphs, daily COVID-19 tables and links to raw data |
| Information is easy to understand |
Yes |
Yes |
| Updated regularly |
Yes |
Yes |
| The data is arranged in table form |
No |
Yes |
| Data can be downloaded |
No |
Yes |
| Covid-19 Parameters |
Relatively not many |
Pretty much |
| Historical data available |
Shown in graph |
Shown in graphs and available with raw data in Github |
| Provincial data available |
Presented with a map of each province containing the latest value figures |
Presented in graphical form for each province and raw data per province is available on GitHub |
Comparison table of the quality of COVID-19 data source channels for Indonesia and Malaysia
Let's look at the neighboring country, namely Malaysia, in terms of COVID-19 data collection. Based on the results of our observations on the canal https://covidnow.moh.gov.my/ And https://github.com/MoH-Malaysia/covid19-public which is managed directly by the official Malaysian Ministry of Health account and collaborates with the Open Data Community, we see data collection that is quite good and very satisfying when the data obtained from this site is so convenient to use for other purposes. The data arrangement is quite neat, the data file explanation is clear, it can be downloaded easily, and no less interesting are the COVID-19 parameters which are quite detailed, especially in the data collection on deaths. Everything has been quite complete since the start of the pandemic and there is data for each province that has been neatly arranged. The following is a screenshot of the Malaysian COVID-19 death data collection presented on GitHub.
Of course, Indonesia (through the Indonesian government), with its various resources and support from the community, is not impossible to realize a channel for collecting Indonesian COVID-19 statistics that is more transparent, integrated, easily accessible to all groups, and comfortable when reused for various purposes. Because the issue is about seriousness of intention and consistency in improving data collection homework that will be neglected.
Contact Person:
Said Fariz Hibban (LaporCovid19) – 6281527440489
