Yellow Flags Now More Frequent

KOMPAS/ADITYA DIVERANTA

A yellow flag (symbolizing a dead person) is installed around the area of RW 013, Pademangan Barat Village, Pademangan, North Jakarta, Friday (5/9/2020). During the Covid-19 pandemic, there were always residents who died every week in the village.

Yellow flags now more frequently adorn telephone and electricity poles in residential areas. The flags, which signal the death of a local resident, are also causing more worry in anyone who sees them. Over the six months since the Covid-19 health crisis emerged, the fluttering yellow flags have induced horror and terror.

The cell phone belonging to Mugiyono, 41, blinked with a WhatsApp group notification from the residential board of West Pademangan subdistrict in Pademangan, North Jakarta. The incoming text read: “Inna lillahi [as we belong to Allah], Haji Sarjono, Chairman of Nurul Hidayah Mosque, Community Unit (RW) 013, has passed away by the mercy of God at 1:55 a.m.” The news received in the small hours on Sunday (6/9/2020) shattered the predawn silence.

Also read: Capital’s Dense Area a Battleground against Covid-19

The report followed the same sad news received six days earlier on 31 Aug., when another resident of the same RW died. As local residents were still grieving this loss, another yellow flag greeted them on Sunday that same week. Two people in the residential area had died in a single week and were laid to rest according to the Covid-19 burial protocol.

Earlier in mid-August, the same RW had lost another two residents. They, too, were interred according to the Covid-19 burial protocol. “I feel that receiving the obituaries is like waiting for our own turn,” said Mugiono, the chief of Neighborhood Unit (RT) 015 in West Pademangan RW 013.

I am frightened, as ambulances are heard more often coming into the residential settlement from the highway

Siti Nurhayati, 28, a resident of West Pademangan RW 010 also feels the same apprehension. She feels uneasy very time an ambulance passes her house, its siren blaring. She hears an ambulance approaching on the highway and then entering the settlement at least three times a week.

“I am frightened, as ambulances are heard more often coming into the residential settlement from the highway,” said Siti.

Also read: Increasingly Alarming Facts

KOMPAS/ADITYA DIVERANTA

Mugiyono (41), a resident of West Pademangan, Pademangan, North Jakarta, showed a message of sad news sent from a community management group, Friday (5/9/2020).

This has been the experience of West Pademangan’s residents over the past six months of the Covid-19 helth crisis. As a gruesome reminder to keep the residents alert to the dangers of Covid-19, an empty coffin has been placed not far from RW 013. Data on the corona.jakarta.go.id website showed that West Pademangan had 41 active confirmed cases and 117 active suspect cases on 8 Sept. On 6 Sept., West Pademangan subdistrict bulletin board listed 25 Covid-19 deaths.

On 1 Sept., West Pademangan recorded the highest cumulative tally for Covid-19 cases among all subdistricts in Jakarta with 454 confirmed cases.

Anxiety spreading

The anxiety among West Pademangan’s residents is also prevalent among residents in other regions with high Covid-19 tallies. Subeni, 43, a resident of Wijaya Kusuma subdistrict RW 002 in Grogol Petamburan, West Jakarta, is worried because his father died earlier and was buried according to the Covid-19 burial protocol. His mother is also a Covid-19 patient.

Also read: Time to Tighten Social Restrictions as Health Care at Critical Point

Meanwhile, Daniel Manik, 28, who lives in Ciracas subdistrict RW 007 in Ciracas, East Jakarta, is always anxious from hearing frequent reports of deaths in his area. “[But] The death notifications are not always certain,” Daniel said.

Kompas

10 Sub-Districts with the Highest Number of Covid-19 Cases in DKI Jakarta. Number of Positive Cases (Jumlah Kasus Positif), Population Density/km2 (Kepadatan Penduduk per km2).

Their worries are understandable, as Jakarta has not seen a decline in new cases of Covid-19. The daily tally on 8 Sept. shot up with 1,015 new Covid-19 cases to record a 13.2 percent positivity rate. The death toll also increased by 12 to bring the total to 1,330 Covid-19 deaths.

Health workers have also numbered among Covid-19 deaths during the health crisis . By 6 Sept. 2020, the Lapor Covid-19 (Report Covid-19) community initiative had recorded 106 deaths among health workers. Their deaths are obviously not just a statistic.

Frequent crowding

Despite the frightening circumstances, the frequent notices of local deaths have not made the residents more cautious. In West Pademangan, for instance, residents frequently gather on the streets, neglecting the health protocol. Such community gatherings are commonplace and occur almost every evening. The residents share snacks as they gather on Jl. Budi Mulia Raya, near the mock-up coffin intended to remind them of the dangers of Covid-19. Some residents and vendors don’t even wear face masks at such gatherings.

The same scene was found in Ciracas over the past week, with many residents neglecting the health protocol. Some people walk leisurely on the roads without a mask. Enforcement from local security personnel seems to be minimal as people become more active.

Also read: More Restrictions being Imposed

The level of alertness among West Pademangan’s residents has declined considerably since April. Mugiyono said that back then, whenever someone in West Pademangan died, the residents maintained physical distancing by shuttering their houses. However, the restrictions were extremely difficult to implement because the area is densely populated.

Kompas/AGUS SUSANTO

Children walk along a narrow alley in a densely populated residential area in RW 010 neighborhood community in Kebon Baru subdistrict, Tebet, South Jakarta, on Friday (24/7/2020). Densely populated areas are prone to transmission of COVID-19. Discipline is needed at all levels to enforce COVID-19 health protocols. The government must continue to intensify the dissemination of information about health protocols.

As time has passed, the local residents have become increasingly lax about following the social restrictions. Today, children go out to play without wearing masks or observing their physical proximity.

“The residents know they can go out as long they wear masks. But what is happening is that there’s no [physical] distancing, nor do they wear masks,” added Mugiyono.

Tri Yunis Miko, who heads the epidemiology department of the University of Indonesia Public Health Faculty, expected that people would be even less vigilant about Covid-19 transmission. This was because people had become less alert to large crowds that made it easier to transmit the disease infection with the reopening of various non-health sectors.

Also read: Hope for the Best, Prepare for the Worst

Tri warned that there would be many more Covid-19 deaths unless the government enforced strict controls, and recommended that the social restrictions should again be tightened. In his view, this was the only way to curb infection.

In the end, managing the health crisis is a matter of preventing the unnecessary loss of human lives. In short, residents don’t want to see their area covered in fluttering yellow flags.