By: Lisa Pamungkas )*
The Covid-19 pandemic is still ongoing and the transmission rate of the virus is still relatively high. The public is advised to always obey the Prokes as an absolute requirement to be able to coexist with the Corona virus.
Spokesperson for Handling Covid-19 Prof. Wiku Adisasmito said, “We need to remain vigilant considering the upward trend in the weekly positivity rate is still not showing signs of decline.
From data analysis as of February 20, 2022, the weekly positivity rate is 17.61%. This figure increased quite sharply compared to the end of January in the range of 1%. Previously, this figure was successfully maintained below the WHO standard, which is less than 5%, for 135 consecutive days or from 17 September 2021 to 29 January 2022. In fact, the lowest figure ever achieved was 0.09% on 12 December 2021.
However, the current weekly positivity rate increase is lower than during the Delta wave. Looking back at the time of Delta, the positivity rate has held above 20% for 5 consecutive weeks.
In fact, it once reached the highest weekly rate of up to 30.24% as of July 18, 2021. So the current positivity rate represents a much lower transmission condition than the delta variant period.
Wiku said that with conditions not as severe as during the Delta variant, all elements of society must continue to increase their vigilance. He also added that this happened in the midst of the condition of greater achievement of antigen swab testing where many people were found positive through the screening process, such as travel requirements and other activities.
The high number of positivity rates in the midst of high mobility of course shows that public awareness of health protocol compliance is still not good enough. In addition, many people who are active and travel are still infected.
Although in the end the infected people can be identified as positive thanks to screening, it would be even better to prevent transmission from happening in the first place. For this reason, in order to end the chain of transmission, it can only be done by implementing strict health protocols and following vaccinations.
On a different occasion, Minister of Health Budi Gunadi Sadikin admitted that the transmission of the Omicron variant in Indonesia was massive. However, he asked the public not to panic because the symptoms of this virus are milder than the previous variants.
Budi ensured that the government had made various efforts to anticipate the third wave of COVID-19 caused by the Omicron variant. One of them is to increase the number of Covid-19 vaccination centers, especially in DKI Jakarta.
Along with the long weekend at the end of February 2022. The Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy (Sandiaga Uno) asked the tourism industry players to continue to prioritize the health aspect in order to enforce the spread of Covid-19.
This effort was carried out through tightening health protocols which included limiting the capacity of the number of visitors. Sandiaga stressed that the managers of tourist destinations should not be carried away by the high euphoria of national holidays which are feared to increase the number of Covid-19 transmissions.
The management of recreational parks is at the forefront of ensuring the commitment to implementing health protocols and CHSE (Cleanliness, Health, Safety and Environment Sustainability) goes according to a mutual agreement. Therefore, optimism will rise and the recovery of the creative tourism sector must be supported by improving service quality.
The public should also have awareness to use masks when outside the home or when in a crowd. The effectiveness of the use of masks to prevent transmission was also proven in clinical trials by the British market research firm Yougov, a team from the Miyazawa Clinic in Hyogo and the University of Houston-Victoria have collected data through computer models to find out how various factors affect the death rate from COVID-19 in various countries. As a result, the use of face masks is the most significant way to reduce the risk of death from COVID-19.
Another study by researchers from the California Institute of Technology this month also rated face masks as the most effective way to prevent human-to-human transmission.
Activities such as schools, tourism and work are indeed not closed 100 percent, so the potential for transmission will still exist, and the way to minimize transmission is to comply with health protocols.
)* The author is a contributor to the Press Circle and Cikini Students