As of Wednesday (22/9), all regencies and cities in Java and Bali have been at level 3 and 2 of the Implementation of Community Activity Restrictions (PPKM). While outside Java-Bali, there are 21 regencies/cities at level 1, 250 regencies/cities at level 2, 105 regencies/cities at level 3, and 10 urban districts at level 4.

Spokesperson for the Covid-19 Vaccination of the Ministry of Health, Siti Nadia Tarmizi, said positive cases and death rates also continued to show a downward trend. This positive trend is also seen in various indicators.

"Of course this is good news for all of us. For that, we would like to thank all parties, especially the people who have helped in controlling the Covid-19 pandemic in Indonesia," said Nadia at the Media Center Forum Medan Merdeka Barat 9 ( FMB 9)-KPCPEN, Wednesday (22/9).

Nationally, weekly cases fell by 40 percent and the number of deaths decreased by 48 percent from the previous week. However, there are still several provinces that still record relatively high incidence and mortality rates, namely in North Kalimantan and Bangka Belitung. Meanwhile, the national positivity rate reached 4 percent in 34 provinces of Indonesia, smaller than the WHO standard; and the national testing rate was increased to 4.22 people per 1,000 population per week.

"This is above the WHO standard or the World Health Organization, which is 1 person checked per 1,000 population per week as a comprehensive surveillance parameter. We also ensure that all provinces have reached the minimum standard with several provinces recording a fairly high testing rate, namely in Bali, Riau, East Kalimantan and DKI Jakarta," said Nadia.

Indications of pandemic control can also be seen from the decrease in occupancy of beds in hospitals. Currently, there are no provinces with BOR above 80 percent, both total and ICU. Nadia said the next task is to maintain this positive trend.

Learn from experience

Nadia said that people's mobility is currently increasing significantly compared to the Emergency PPKM period last July, as well as the level 4 PPKM period in early August.

"The Ministry of Health monitors the movement of people using various approaches, one of which is by using google mobility data. It appears that in all provinces there is an increase in movement and some have even exceeded pre-pandemic levels, such as in West Java, Banten, Central Java, and East Java," he said.

For this reason, the public is advised to anticipate the wave of Covid-19 in the future through the discipline of health protocols, vaccinations, as well as testing and tracing. Nadia emphasized that the easing of the PPKM does not mean stopping the implementation of the health program, including for residents who have been vaccinated.

The same thing must also be applied to the implementation of Face-to-face Learning (PTM), where schools, students, and parents must work together to reduce the potential for transmission. Among other things, by maintaining a minimum distance of one meter, requiring everyone to wear masks, and ensuring students can wash their hands with soap and water regularly.

Furthermore, Nadia again reminded the public not to delay vaccination opportunities, especially for the elderly as one of the priority groups, and dare to fight misinformation and hoaxes.

The Covid-19 behavior dashboard from the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication shows that the sources of information related to Covid-19 trusted by the Indonesian people are health workers, experts, CDC/WHO, and the government with an average percentage of more than 90 percent.

"We want to thank the public for choosing a reliable source of information," he said.