Health Protocols Must Apply to Every Sector of Life, Without Exception
The people must adjust and adopt new habits, as social restrictions had become the “new normal” due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Health protocols should therefore be strictly implemented in all aspects of life.
By
DEONISIA ARLINTA
·3 minutes read
BNPB
Data on the spread of COVID-19 in Indonesia as of June 2.
JAKARTA, KOMPAS—The people must adjust and adopt new habits, as social restrictions had become the “new normal” due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Health protocols should therefore be strictly implemented in all aspects of life.
Suharso Monoarfa, the National Development Planning Minister/head of the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas), said in Jakarta on Tuesday that the people needed to prepare themselves and adopt new habits “to make peace with the COVID-19 pandemic”.
Basic health protocols, such as hand washing and wearing a mask, needed to be practiced with better discipline.
"This new behavior is a necessity, especially if we want to adapt to and make peace with COVID-19. It is vital so that the disease will not spread further and to ensure that the number of new cases will not increase further,” he said in Jakarta.
Suharso said that health protocols must be applied to any space where crowds might gather, including places of worship, shopping centers, markets, restaurants and workplaces. The management of such places must develop their own health protocols to prevent COVID-19 transmission.
He said that, for example, restaurant services should require reservations in order to avoid crowding. This would pose no complications if a system was prepared beforehand and customers followed it.
"There is nothing complicated in adopting new habits as the new normal. Within a few weeks or even days, we have to adjust to the new normal. Some regions have even begun to implement it. Therefore, our discipline is quite important in implementing the health protocols," said Suharso.
RIAN SEPTIANDI
Suharso Monoarfa, the National Development Planning Minister/head of the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas).
COVID-19 task force spokesman Achmad Yurianto stated that the number of new cases was still growing in the country. On 2 June 2020, the task force recorded 609 new cases. The highest provincial increases in new cases were reported in East Java (213 cases), Papua (94), Jakarta (60), and South Sulawesi (44).
The additional new cases brought the nation’s cumulative total to 27,549 confirmed cases. Meanwhile, 7,935 patients had recovered while the death toll had increased to 1,663. The cases were found in 417 regencies/cities in all 34 provinces in the country.
Yurianto said that swab tests were proceeding in order to halt further spread of the disease. As many as 9,049 swab samples had been tested and the results obtained on 2 June 2020. Meanwhile, Indonesia had completed a cumulative total of 342,464 COVID-19 tests, both real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests and rapid diagnostic tests (RDT). The samples were collected from 237,947 people with suspected COVID-19 infection.
There are still vulnerable people who are ignoring the health protocols and have not yet adopted the new habits.
"The increase in new cases shows that there are still sources of transmission among the public. There are still vulnerable people who are ignoring the health protocols and have not yet adopted the new habits," he said.
The head of the COVID-19 task force expert team, Wiku Adisasmito, said that there were at least two critical steps to managing the outbreak, namely vaccination and preventing the virus’s transmission. As no vaccines had been developed, preventive efforts were the most effective means at this time.
"Preventive efforts should come from us, for example by avoiding direct exposure to the virus. This can be done by adhering to the health protocols. In fact, the public is already familiar with [the protocols]. So the most important thing is to make sure that the protocol is applied with discipline and correctly," he said.
