By: Alula Khairunisa)*
The success of handling the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia turned out to be the result of the strong synergy of all relevant parties, ranging from policies designed by the government to how the community itself complied to consciously carry out all these policies so that the pandemic could be overcome together.
Not just words, but concrete evidence through data shows that Indonesia has succeeded in controlling and handling the COVID-19 pandemic. How not, the article is that of the 277 million people in the country, in fact, as per the updated data per August 2022, 6 million people have been exposed to COVID-19, then the total death rate in Indonesia is only 150 cases.
If you look at the success of handling the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia, the comparison is the United States, which has a population of 322 million people. Many Americans have been infected with COVID-19, which is 95 million people, with a death case that is also quite fantastic, which is 1 million.
Of course, the two data alone can be compared and it can be seen how successful Indonesia is in handling and controlling the COVID-19 pandemic because it is able to continue to maintain the number of positive cases, including preventing the death toll from being too high, and even recently the curve in the country has continued to slope. .
Many strategic steps have been pursued by the Government of Indonesia in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic in the country. Several steps and policies that have in fact proved very effective to be implemented by the government for the entire community are to limit mobility, then continue to campaign for 3M practices widely, namely wearing masks, washing hands and maintaining distance, including continuing to encourage all people to carry out vaccinations up to the maximum dose. full and do a booster vaccine. For the future, how to accelerate the recovery of the national economy.
Regarding the expansion of vaccination to all corners of the country so that it can be reached by all Indonesian people, the government itself is still continuing to accelerate the rate of vaccination, especially the third dose or booster vaccine. Deputy for Coordination for BUMN Business Development, Research, and Innovation, Montty Girianna explained that the important variables in handling the COVID-19 pandemic were indeed related to community mobility and vaccination.
According to him, vaccination is one of the most important items if people really want to immediately live a normal life like before the pandemic. The reason is, if people do not immediately undergo vaccination, then they will also find it difficult to carry out their daily activities because they are not balanced with their immune system. If the majority of people have undergone vaccination, it is not impossible that herd immunity will be formed and also transformed into herd protection .
In addition to vaccination, the self-confidence of the community will also automatically increase so that they can carry out daily activities, and will also have an impact on the movement of the national economy so that it will accelerate economic recovery.
Not just vaccinating the first dose and the second dose, Montty also added that it is very important that the entire community can undergo a third or booster dose of vaccine because it can help increase human antibody levels even up to 2 or 3 times more.
One of the other strategies that has been proven to be very successfully executed by the Government of Indonesia is how the decentralization system is carried out, because it is precisely the Regional Government that is considered the most understanding of the conditions of their own people in their respective regions so that without good cooperation, of course the formulation of several policies will not be balanced in efforts to handle the pandemic and also post-COVID-19 economic recovery.
Of course, with these facts, the actual success of handling the COVID-19 pandemic will not be achieved if the government does not implement the right policies, or the policies cannot be conveyed to the public properly. This includes the community’s commitment and self-awareness to be able to carry out all the policies that have been set, so that the synergy between the two parties is very important.
Appreciation should also be given to all parties who have worked hard to protect the entire community, including efforts to restore the condition of this nation. The success of handling the Covid-19 pandemic in Indonesia cannot be separated from the support and coordination of all parties including the Central Government, Regional Governments, TNI, POLRI, Private Sector, and Community Organizations.
Of course, the success shown by Indonesia in controlling and handling the COVID-19 pandemic cannot be denied because there is a very strong synergy between all parties, in working hand in hand and implementing the principle of gotong royong to fight the COVID-19 pandemic together. No matter how good the policies that have been designed by the central government, of course they will not be able to run optimally if they are not supported by all parties, down to the smallest at the community level.
)* The author is a contributor to the Nusantara Reading Room