Jakarta, IO – Dicky Budiman, epidemiologist at Griffith University, Australia, advised that the government’s Covid-19 policy is aimed at containing the virus as opposed to declaring it endemic. Because endemic means that there will still be cases and the virus can still pose danger.
“In the endemic phase, there are still sick and dead people. So the national target should be toward getting it under control,” said Dicky through a press statement received by Observerid.com on Thursday (12/5).
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Dicky said that the transition from pandemic to endemic status should ideally be accompanied by a flattened trend. “Transition to endemic means the virus is on the wane, it doesn’t have to be zero case. The highest reproduction rate is 1 or below 1, for at least two weeks in a row,” he said.