By : Edwin Harahap )*
The whole community must again intensify the implementation of health protocols for themselves. This is one of the steps that can be taken to prevent a spike in Covid-19 cases, which is mainly caused by the emergence of the latest sub-variant from Omicron, namely BA.4 and BA.5.
The existence of the Covid-19 pandemic is still real and has not really ended in the world, including Indonesia itself. Moreover, recently there was a mutation of the Omicron variant which then resulted in the reduction of the newest sub variants, namely BA.4 and BA.5. Therefore, the Ministry of Health continues to appeal to the entire community to continue to increase their vigilance.
This increased vigilance can be done by continuing to maintain strict health protocols which so far can also be said to be very effective in breaking the chain of transmission of Covid-19, namely by washing hands using soap and running water, keeping a distance from other people and continuing to wear masks when outside. house.
In order to promote the socialization of the importance of continuing to implement health protocols, the Covid-19 Task Force will again activate health care programs for the entire community down to the village and sub-district levels which are micro-scale because of course its role cannot be ignored if you want to support the country’s overall resilience system.
Head of the Health Support Sub-Sector for the Emergency Division of the Covid-19 Handling Task Force, Alexander K Ginting stated that the outreach campaign about the importance of wearing health protocols in order to be able to prevent the transmission of BA.4 and BA.5, will even target commuters who usually use public transportation facilities. namely trains and buses.
Alexander added that the increase in positive cases of Covid-19 in Indonesia, although some time ago it had been sloping, was because many people had begun to relax their health protocols. Not only that, but with efforts to revive the economy, the community also begins to do a lot of mobility so that if the mobility is high but is not accompanied by the implementation of health protocols, then what happens is the risk of transmission will increase.
Data from the Ministry of Health, it was noted that the increase in cases of BA.4 and BA.5 infections continued to occur, even reaching 143 cases out of a total of 1,907 positive cases throughout Indonesia. In a press conference, dr. Mohammad Syahril explained to the whole community about the symptoms experienced when someone was confirmed positive for BA.4 and BA.5.
According to him, these symptoms will mainly occur in coughing, then usually accompanied by fever, flu, runny nose. So it can be said that indeed these symptoms are very similar to when someone is exposed to Omicron, but with a lighter version.
Further, dr. Mohammad Syahril admitted that the Covid-19 number could still fluctuate whether it was an increase or a decrease because the pandemic status had not yet ended. For this reason, vigilance must continue to be increased. On the other hand, to really be able to change the status of this worldwide pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) itself has a target that at least until June 2022, 70 percent of the population has received two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine.
Meanwhile, in Indonesia, the population that has been vaccinated is 74 percent for the first dose, then 62 percent for the second dose. The government will also continue to intensify the provision of vaccines because in order to immediately eradicate the pandemic and target the entire population to be vaccinated, which has indeed become a priority program, including the provision of boosters.
So it is clear that in addition to the Government’s efforts to make the vaccination program for the entire community a priority program, on the other hand, the people themselves must be able to really pay attention to the implementation of the health protocols they are doing. Don’t let your guard down because you feel that the pandemic is gone, so you just leave the implementation of prokes.
)* The author is a contributor to Pertiwi Institute