Padang (ANTARA) - Health experts from the Andalas University (Unand) of Padang Dr. Dr Andani Eka Putra assessed the increase in positive cases of Corona Virus Disease (COVID-19) in W Sumatra was good sign according to epidemic management.
"I dare say that this case continues to increase, it's getting better because that we found are people who have the potential to transmit the virus so that the chain can be broken," he said in Padang, Thursday.
Head of Diagnostics Center and Infection Disease Research at the Faculty of Medicine in Unand said in handling COVID-19, the most important thing to do is to enforce case identification and immediately break the chain of transmission.
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He explained that until now the number of COVID-19 positive patients in W Sumatra was 72.6 percent of those in monitoring and those without symptoms, then only 27.4 percent of patients under surveillance were in the hospital.
According to him in handling the pandemic, ideally there should be effort of case finding actively through surveys and contact tracing so that the hospital is the last bastion.
He saw that positive case findings meant that people were found to be the source of transmission and if more were found it was better for the process of breaking the chain of distribution.
"The main principle of preventing a pandemic is to find as many people as possible who become the source of transmission, not treating it in the hospital," he said.
Related to the peak of cases in W Sumatra, he estimated that would occur when about 50 percent of the population had been infected.
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"However, if the source of transmission can be controlled since the beginning, the peak will slow down, more fast to detect , the peak will not appear," he said.
However, if there is no early detection and an increase in cases occurs, he believes that W Sumatra will not be ready and could cause 5,000 deaths per day.
He gave an example of an cases in the United States the death rate reached 2,500 per day with good health, human resources and budget facilities.
"Therefore, let all parties join together to break the chain of transmission," he said.
While based on data compiled from the W Sumatra Provincial Government, since the first positive case of COVID-19 was found on March 26 to May 6, 2020 there were 238 positive cases, 98 treated, 61 independent isolation at home, 31 isolation at Bapelkes, 12 isolation at BPSDM, 16 died and 38 recovered. (*)
Transleted by: Mutiara Ramadhani
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