Tips from Indonesia to Succeed Handling the COVID-19 Pandemic

TheIndonesia.id - Indonesia is applauded as among five countries worldwide that have successfully handled the COVID-19 pandemic. The Indonesian Government Spokesperson for COVID-19 and Ambassador for Adaptation of New Habits Reisa Broto Asmoro said that there are six indicators that the government closely watches for that.

"Currently, there are six indicators that must be monitored regularly," said Reisa quoted by Antara news agency in Jakarta, Monday, December 6, 2021.

The first three indicators are, first, recording the number of active COVID-19 cases; second, calculating the occupancy of beds in hospitals or the Bed Occupation Rate (BOR); and third, public compliance with health protocols. Other indicators are the effective reproduction rate (Rt), the level of population mobility, and the vaccination rate.

The community has a role to monitor in helping prevent new variants of COVID-19 from appearing by always prioritizing the discipline of health protocols. The strict discipline of health protocols, she said, included the correct use of masks, diligently washing hands after handling objects, and maintaining distance from others through reduced mobility.

Although positive cases of COVID-19 are under control, she hopes people immediately get a vaccination and also invite families who have not been injected to get a vaccine that can help build herd immunity. She states that monitoring of the six indicators will be greatly helped by the cooperation of all parties in complying with health protocols. It also prevents new variants of Omicron from entering Indonesia.

“This health protocol discipline is actually what can prevent us from getting COVID-19 regardless of the type of variant, including Omicron. The government has targeted that by the end of December, 80 percent of the population will have received the first dose and 60 percent have completed it," she said.

Indonesia ranked among five countries worldwide to have successfully handled the COVID-19 pandemic at level 1 through hard work and cooperation among all parties, according to President Joko Widodo (Jokowi).

"We became one of the five countries in the world to have succeeded in controlling the COVID-19 pandemic at level 1. This proved our nation's ability to face challenges," he remarked at the Congress for Alumni Association of the Indonesian National Student Movement at the State Palace on Monday.

President Jokowi affirmed that Indonesia's success in controlling the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated its ability to turn difficult challenges into opportunities to forge ahead.

Indonesia has also been exceedingly thorough and careful in its approach while issuing policies to control the COVID-19 pandemic and simultaneously restore the community's economy, he noted. "When the world is under lockdown, we are carefully controlling the pandemic while still moving the economy carefully," Jokowi remarked.

The president later noted that the COVID-19 pandemic had posed challenges and disruptions that had compelled Indonesia and the world to implement new development methods and acclimatize to the new normal.

According to the latest data from the COVID-19 Task Force, the trend for additional cases of COVID-19 has been apparent from the hundreds of cases in recent weeks, or a significant decline as compared to the addition of tens of thousands of cases at the peak of the second wave in July 2021.

As of December 5, some 196 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 were reported throughout Indonesia, thereby bringing the total count of confirmed cases of COVID-19 since March 2020 to date to 4,257,685. Meanwhile, the Health Ministry's data as of December 5 showed that over 142 million Indonesians had received the first dose of vaccination, or 68.42 percent and 99 million people had been fully vaccinated, or 47.55 percent.