The government has allowed the implementation of the community going home on Eid Al-Fitr 1443 H/2022. Even so, travelers are required to always obey the Prokes until they participate in booster vaccinations because the community is the front line in preventing the spike in Covid-19 cases after Eid as has happened in the previous period.
Soon the community will celebrate Eid al-Fitr which is also usually very synonymous with going home to their hometown to establish a relationship with their relatives there. Recently, the Government itself has opened public access to be able to carry out Lebaran homecoming trips.
But even so, it does not mean that we are not at all alert because the status of the pandemic is still there. In fact, it is one of the tasks of all of us as a society to be able to maintain the sloping curve of the Covid-19 transmission after Eid Al-Fitr 2022. Do not let there be an explosion of cases suddenly. This has also caught the attention of President Joko Widodo by warning that there would be no explosion of cases.
Reflecting on the experience during Lebaran 2 years ago, it turns out that there has always been a positive correlation between people’s mobility for Lebaran homecoming and the soaring number of Covid-19 cases, even though it had been sloping for a while. Therefore, in 2022 this time, do not let the back cases happen again.
Epidemiologist Dicky Budiman said that currently around 20 percent of Indonesia’s population is still vulnerable to being infected with Covid-19. The reasons could be various, starting from they haven’t been vaccinated, or maybe they haven’t been infected, or it could be that their immunity has decreased due to infection and vaccination.
Even so, the Epidemiologist added that there are still some groups of people who are most at risk of transmitting Covid-19, such as the elderly, then those with congenital or comorbid diseases to children under five years old to newborns. Even Dicky said that in fact there will always be a potential spike in cases.
The spike in cases that occurred may indeed not be as severe as in previous years. This is because it cannot be denied that when millions of people carry out mobility at the same time, namely running homecoming, of course the potential for a spike in Covid-19 is not impossible. However, this potential becomes smaller because most people already have immunity.
Not only because those who have immunity have an effect on reducing the potential for a spike in Covid-19 after Eid, but this can also be influenced by several other aspects, such as the community’s adherence to health protocols to a healthy and clean environment.
The government itself so far has also tried various things to the maximum so that people are able to carry out Eid homecoming safely and healthily. Even President Jokowi stated directly that the government’s main focus is public safety as a priority. By sloping down cases of Covid-19 transmission, which is proof of the Government’s success so far in controlling the pandemic, of course, the public must also continue to maintain a stable transmission curve so that there is no spike.
Indeed, homecoming travel has been relaxed more by the Government, but that does not mean that we are also relaxed and careless about not continuing to apply health protocols. As the front line to prevent the rise of Covid-19, collaboration and community compliance with Prokes is very important to suppress the surge in Covid-19 cases after Eid al-Fitr.
)* The author is a contributor to Pertiwi Institute
