By: Raditya Rahman )*
The government continues to struggle hard to control the rate of transmission of Covid-19. Since it was first announced in early March 2020, the handling of Covid-19 in Indonesia has continued to improve.
The Covid-19 pandemic in Indonesia has not yet been declared over, but developments in the handling of covid-19 on a weekly basis in 10 provinces have shown relatively good results. Coordinator of the Expert Team and Spokesperson for the Covid-19 Handling Task Force Prof. Wiku Adisasmito showed this through comparison data on the number of cases and comparison of the number of deaths for the period 5-11 October 2020 vs 12-18 October 2020.
Seeing that the highest increase was in Papua Province which experienced an increase of 27 percent. Followed by South Sulawesi with a 5.5% increase, Central Java up 1.6%, South Kalimantan up 1.2% and Nangroe Acehh Darussalam 0.3%. However, several provinces also experienced a decrease in the number of cases in North Sumatra, DKI Jakarta, West Java, East Java and Bali.
Wiku added that the highest decrease was in Bali Province with a total of 17.3%. DKI Jakarta fell 9.2%, West Java fell 8.7%, East Java fell 6.4% and North Sumatra fell 6.3%
Even so, he advised that the achievements of several provinces should not make local governments and communities become complacent and complacent. Especially because the death rate is quite concerning.
He also asked all health service facilities to strictly follow the standard of treatment and services that have been determined by the Ministry of Health together with 5 medical organizations.
As for the provinces that have not achieved good development this week, efforts should be made to suppress transmission so that the number of cases can decrease. He asked all local governments to ensure the best quality in handling Covid-19 patients, including treating patients early on. Includes patients with moderate and severe symptoms. So that it can increase the potential for healing and minimize the potential for death.
Wiku also reminded the public, both young and old and everywhere, to immediately contact the nearest health facility if they feel the symptoms of Covid-19. The community is also expected not to underestimate the symptoms of Covid-19.
Meanwhile, the government is also optimistic in efforts to deal with Covid-19 in the country. This is realized through various efforts, such as increasing the capacity of specimen examination and increasing the number of laboratories for sample testing in several regions in Indonesia.
Based on data from the Covid-19 task force, the laboratory for testing Covid-19 specimen samples reached 377 labs in the last seven months. The addition of the lab is expected to accelerate efforts to tracing and testing Covid-19 patients, so that the handling of Covid-19 can be optimized.
With the increase in laboratories, of course, the average specimen examination has reached 270 thousand specimens from around 33 thousand people per day. Each person can be sampled more than one. In other words, the average number of examining these specimens was 82.51 percent of the target of the World Health Organization (WHO).
This data also shows that the Central Government is very serious and continues to be optimistic in increasing the capacity of specimen examination for handling Covid-19 in the country.
Head of the Covid-19 Handling Task Force Doni Monardo pointed out that the cure rate for Covid-19 patients in the country has also increased by 7.2%. This figure also exceeds the WHO standard.
This achievement certainly cannot be separated from the cooperation and hard work of all components in the regions. So that all elements involved in handling Covid-19 deserve appreciation.
Although Indonesia has mourned the death of more than 100 doctors who died during the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the high recovery rate is something to be grateful for.
Health workers continue to innovate in dealing with the virus pandemic that is emerging for the first time in the world. Thus, more and more patients have recovered since the Covid-19 pandemic broke out in March 2020.
Founder & Chairman of MarkPlus, Hermawan Kartajaya feels that the government has handled the Covid-19 pandemic in a measured manner.
Apart from government work, efforts to deal with covid-19 certainly require active community involvement in accordance with their respective capacities. This includes compliance with health protocols.
Handling Covid-19 in Indonesia must get support from many parties, because this pandemic is a common problem so we need a mutual cooperation to protect ourselves and those around you from the transmission of the corona virus.
)* The author is a socio-political observer, active in the Jakarta Student Movement (Gema)