Greater Jakarta’s Specificity

KOMPAS/TATANG MULYANA SINAGA

A member of the research team for the Covid-19 vaccine clinical trial runs a series of health checks to screen a volunteer on Thursday (6/8/2020) at the School of Medicine, Padjadjaran University (Unpad) in the city of Bandung, West Java. The clinical trial of the candidate vaccine produced by Sinovac, China, began on Tuesday (11/8/2020) at six locations: the Unpad Education Hospital, the Unpad Health Center and four puskesmas (community health centers) in the city.

The COVID-19 outbreak in Greater Jakarta requires special treatment due to the nature of Jakarta and its buffer cities with its high level of mobility.

Jakarta as the nation’s capital, is not only the seat of the national government and a major business hub. For decades, Jakarta has attracted people seeking better lives. Understandably, tens of millions of people from Bogor, Depok, Tangerang and Bekasi (Bodetabek), the capital’s buffer zones, go to the capital every day to earn their livelihood.

Jakarta has over 10 million people and the number keeps rising every year. The huge number of workers commuting from the city’s buffer zones means that 13 million people are doing their activities in the capital in the daytime. Some of them are office workers while others work in informal businesses. A majority of them rely on public transportation, including commuter trains, buses and the MRT, to travel around. Others use private cars and more rely on motorbikes.

Also read : Don’t Get Smug on Vaccine Euphoria

People’s movement in Greater Jakarta is inevitable as, if they do not go to work, they cannot earn money. Some can work from home. However, for informal workers, working this way is unthinkable.

Due to these characteristics, breakthroughs are needed to resolve the COVID-19 outbreak in Greater Jakarta. Other than the high level of work-related mobility, people in Greater Jakarta lack discipline in adhering to health protocols.

Also read: Offices a Source of New Clusters

KOMPAS/TOTOK WIJAYANTO

Health workers perform a swab test on Sawah Besar District Office Staff, Central Jakarta, at the sub-district office, Tuesday (18/8/2020).

The high level of people’s mobility, combined with lack of discipline toward health protocols, has resulted in the continued rise of confirmed COVID-19 cases. Between Saturday (15/8/2020) and Monday (17/8/2020), there were 37 new confirmed COVID-19 cases in Bogor city, West Java. The number of confirmed cases in Bogor regency also increased to 59 in the past three days.

Bekasi found 85 new confirmed COVID-19 cases in the past two days due to new family clusters. Infections occur due to regional transmissions and transmissions from work interaction. People also lack discipline in maintaining social distancing and do not care about crowds.

Also read :Workplaces at Risk of Covid-19 Transmission

Amid cases of neglect toward health protocols, Jakarta had 30,092 confirmed cases as of Monday. Some 9,162 patients are still in treatment. The average number of COVID-19 patients out of the total amount of cases examined (positivity rate) reached 9.6 percent in the past week. It is not yet safe, if we use the World Health Organization’s standard of positivity rate, which is lower than 5 percent.

Coordination between regional heads in Greater Jakarta is a must in order to anticipate the phenomenon. Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan, West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil and Banten Governor Wahidin Halim must sit down together and formulate the most effective strategy to tackle the outbreak in Greater Jakarta. Regional heads must not concentrate on working merely for their respective regions but must work together to find the best solution for Greater Jakarta.