Improve Health Protocol Supervision

KOMPAS/RIZA FATHONI

Prospective passengers line up in lines to enter Tanah Abang Station, Central Jakarta, Monday (25/1/2021). They wear masks and keep their distance.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS —The efforts to curb the spread of Covid-19 by restricting community activities are deemed ineffective due to weak supervision. The number of Covid-19 cases in Indonesia is approaching one million and the addition of fatalities in the past week has become the highest in Asia.

A number of residents say they are tired of the prolonged social restrictions in Jakarta and its surrounding areas. As a result, the daily health protocols practices to prevent transmission of Covid-19 have been relaxed.

According to Kompas\' observations, people continued to violate health protocols when community activity restrictions (PPKM) were extended on Monday (25/1/2021). The obligation to maintain physical distance and to wear face masks weakened in some activities, namely at markets and offices. In addition, a number of motorcyclists often do not have masks.

Two weeks of the social restrictions, we received many reports of violations of health protocols.

Yusuf Sayuti (38), who rides his motorcycle driver from Jalan Raya Bogor-Jakarta, observes that similar violations occur every morning. Supervision at city borders has no impact on (reducing the number of) health protocols violations.

"Two weeks of the social restrictions, we received many reports of violations of health protocols. Some of the reports we forward to the local administration have not been followed up,” said Yemiko Happy from the public complaints division at Lapor Covid-19.

Also read: Alarming Signals in Primary Health Services

In the last two weeks, there were 116 reports from the public and 60 percent of them related to health protocol violations. The majority of violations occurred at offices. "[There are] many reports of employees being told to work ignoring PPKM regulations, namely 75 percent working from home and 25 percent in offices," he said.

Kompas

Development of Covid-19 Data Per Month. Number of Cases (Jumlah Kasus), Healed (Sembuh), Died (Meninggal).

There were also violations related to mass gatherings, such as holding parties and night markets. Violations have also occurred in the education sector, for example a boarding school in Deli Serdang regency, North Sumatra, which organizes face-to-face lectures, ignoring health protocols. "Many regions did not respond to [public] reports, and did not even have a Covid-19 call center," said Yemiko.

The Health Ministry’s director for prevention and control of direct communicable diseases, Siti Nadia Tarmizi, said that although there were channels for complaints, the speed of response in each region varied.

Improve supervision

Many people face difficulties in accessing Covid-19 tests and have to wait for the test results for more than a week. Another problem is the weak contact tracing.

Nadia said PCR testing was constrained by reagent limitations because there was a quota from the producers for each country. In order to overcome this problem, the government uses the antigen rapid test at community health centers (Puskesmas).

Also read: Restrictions Still Fail to Overcome

With limited testing, cases in Indonesia are increasing. According to the Covid-19 task force, the cumulative number of Covid-19 cases in Indonesia is 999,256 people, while 28,132 people have died. The high level of Covid-19 transmission in Indonesia is indicated by a positive test ratio of 27.8 percent in the past week.

Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation director Asfinawati said central government leadership was needed in implementing Law No. 6/2018 on Health Quarantine.

This article was translated by Kurniawan H. Siswoko.