By: Zakaria )*
The government continues to move quickly to contain the spread of Omicron, including by locking the Athlete’s House. The public is also asked to always obey Prokes, reduce travel, and participate in vaccinations.
Minister of Health Budi Gunadi Sadikin in his press statement revealed that the Ministry of Health had detected the Omicron variant of the Corona virus in the country. He added that the positive patient for COVID-19, the Omicron variant, was a cleaning service at Wisma Atlet, Jakarta.
Budi explained, On December 10, 2021, 3 cleaning workers were received at the Wisma Atlet with 1 confirmed positive for Omicron. He said the three people did not show symptoms. No fever. The three are also being quarantined at the Athlete’s House without symptoms. The PCR sample has been taken and has been declared negative.
The Covid-19 Handling Task Force moved quickly to respond to the findings of the Omicron variant of the Corona virus. One of the steps is to carry out an emergency response. Spokesman for the Covid-19 Handling Task Force, Wiku Adisasmito, said in a press statement that the government was optimizing emergency response efforts to prevent the spread of transmission of the Covid-19 variant in the country, and then formulating policies that were adapted to input from experts and officers in the field.
In addition, the Covid-19 Task Force is also committed to tightening the quarantine for 10-14 days. Wiku also said that a number of policies to prevent the entry of new variants were appropriate. For example, determining a 10-14 day quarantine period for international travelers entering Indonesia. Then, repeat the RT-PCR test 2 times to really confirm whether someone is positive or not.
In order to overcome the presence of the Omicron variant in Indonesia, the Government through the National Police appealed to the public to pay attention to the anticipation of the Omicron variant.
The National Police has also shared the anticipation of the new variant of Omicron on the Instagram page. First, by tightening restrictions on foreign arrivals and increasing whole genome sequencing. Second, periodically monitoring and evaluating countries that are restricted from entering Indonesia.
Third, implementing a bubble system without quarantine, strict application of health protocols, and the use of care and protection applications for the G20 meeting in Bali, December 2021.
It should be noted that the anticipation information is sourced from the account of the Directorate General of IKP Kominfo, namely @djikp. At the end of the upload, the National Police appealed to the public to always be careful of this new variant of the Omicron virus. One of them is obeying health protocols and always following government recommendations.
The Indonesian government is also well aware that there is a risk of rapid transmission of the Omicron variant. So that the government is also moving quickly to formulate policies to reduce the transmission of the new variant.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo invited the Indonesian people to work together to prevent the transmission of the Omicron variant of the Covid-19 in the country. Jokowi appealed to the public not to panic with the discovery of cases of Omicron transmission. To prevent a spike in cases, he asked the public to immediately follow the Covid-19 vaccination for 2 doses for those who have not.
In addition, the former Mayor of Surakarta also invited all parties to continue to implement strict health protocols, and temporarily limit mobility, especially travel abroad. Jokowi also ordered local governments to intensify testing and tracing of close contacts so that these cases could be detected early.
Meanwhile, in recent weeks, several towers of the Wisma Atlet RSDC have also functioned as quarantine places for international travellers, to complement the Pademangan Athlete House.
This is because the Wisma Atlet is isolated and to anticipate the surge in demand, the government has also opened the Nagrak Flats in Cilincing, North Jakarta, to quarantine travelers from abroad. The Nagrak Flat will later become a centralized quarantine location for Indonesian Migrant Workers (PMI), students and ASN who have just arrived from abroad.
Rusun Nagrak itself has a capacity of more than 4,000 beds. The fulfillment of health workers in Nagrak Flats will later be supported by human resources from the DKI Jakarta Health Office.
Fast action is of course needed, especially with the decline in confirmed cases of Covid which has made many activities resume, so the government and the public must move and collaborate to tackle the Omicron variant of the Corona virus so that it does not spread to other areas.
)* The author is a contributor to the Press Circle and Cikin Students