By: Raavi Ramadhan) *
In the midst of the Corona Virus Covid 19 or Covid 19, Hoax related to lockdown policy has spread. As happened in the District of West Aceh, where people began to fret over the issue of lockdown in the local district to prevent the spread of the Diasease or Covid-19 corona virus which began on Monday.
The news circulating in the middle of the community, lockdown lasted for 3 days and all activities were stopped temporarily during lockd own took place.
The issue which was troubling the community was later denied by the West Aceh District Government. Through a spokesman for the West Aceh Government, Amril Nuthihar, he said that the news that brought panic buying in the community was deliberately exhaled by irresponsible parties.
In fact, according to him, until now the local district government has not discussed let alone issue an announcement to do a lockdown in West Aceh Regency.
He hopes that the community will always be cool and distrustful of the hoax’s clear information.
At present the local government of the Regency is anticipating this by monitoring the community returning from outside the area or the so-called migrants.
The monitoring applies to people who have just returned from outside the area or other regional migrants to West Aceh but without showing any symptoms that lead to corona virus symptoms.
Therefore, he requested that the people in the regency of West Aceh in particular to always be vigilant and introspective of the information circulating by constantly checking the truth of every information received.
Amril said that his party was currently tracking the spreaders of the hoax issue that had caused public panic so that many residents came to the market to prepare for basic needs during the lockdown that was rumored for 3 days.
Hoax related to lockdown also occurred in DKI Jakarta, where information on the closure of six toll roads in Jakarta and surrounding areas was circulating . The news of the closure of a number of toll roads was previously circulated due to the increasing number of cases of the corona virus or covid-19 and is associated with lockdown discourse which is widely discussed by the public.
This was denied by PT Jasa Marga (Persero) Tbk. He said, explicitly the information related to the closure of a number of toll roads was hoax or incorrect.
The six toll roads that were reported to have closed were the Jakarta-Cikampek toll road, the Jakarta-Tangerang toll road, the Jakarta Inner Ring Road, the Sedyatmo Toll Road to Soekarno-Hatta Airport, Jagorawi Toll Road and Non S. JORR Toll Road.
Government spokesman for the handling of Covid-19, Achmad Yurianto said, there were additional positive corona patients to 109 cases.
So that there are a total of 1,155 cases with 59 patients cured and 102 people declared dead due to co-19 infection.
Yurianto said for this to be something important for the community to keep abiding by the government’s call to stay at home. In addition, his party also requested that the community reduce activities and interactions outside the home.
Although the number of cases of corona virus sufferers has increased, the central government does not yet have plans to do a lockdown, including in Jakarta. But in the regions, the lockdown policy has been taken individually by regional heads, such as in Tegal, Central Java to Papua.
The company had temporarily closed its cash top up facility at the toll gate of the Jabodetabek area as of March 19, 2020. This was done in order to maintain the health and safety of both road users and Jasa Marga operational employees.
Jasa Marga Corporate Communication & Community Development Group Head Dwimawan Heru said, with the cash top up facility there were still transactions with cash and potential physical contact between road users and Jasa Marga operational employees.
For this reason, there is no queue of transactions at the toll gate, Heru urges road users who want to pass the toll road to ensure adequate e-money balances.
Ensuring the adequacy of e-money balances before crossing a toll road is a form of support for road users to participate in implementing social distancing at toll gates.
Hoax information related to lockdown certainly makes people uneasy, it’s better we are smart in choosing official information from the government in the midst of the 19th pandemic that is endemic in Indonesia.
) * The writer is a citizen , living in Bandung.