Doni Monardo Calls COVID-19 Cases Often Increase During Long Holidays

Chairman of the Task Force (Task Force) Handling COVID-19, Doni Monardo (Photo: Doc BNPB)

JAKARTA - Chairperson of the Task Force for Handling COVID-19 Doni Monardo said that positive cases of COVID-19 often increase during long holidays. According to him, the increase in COVID-19 cases during holidays has occurred during Eid and Eid al-Adha.

According to him, even though President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has announced during the Idul Fitri holiday that people do not travel to their hometowns to carry out the homecoming tradition, in fact people still do it.

"The President, long before Eid al-Fitr, repeatedly chaired meetings. Finally, the government's decision was that there would be no going home or no return to the village. But after the Eid leave ends, we see an increase in cases but the number is not significant," Doni said in a conference that aired on the BNPB YouTube account, Tuesday, October 27.

Likewise during Eid al-Adha. The head of the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) said the number of cases had also increased again, but not significantly.

However, a different incident actually happened during the long holiday which occurred on 23-26 August. From the data he has, Doni said that on September 1 there was an increase in cases in almost all major cities in Indonesia.

As a result, many hospitals whose utilization rates exceed 80 percent, including in Jakarta. This figure even exceeds the WHO standard figure regarding the use of beds, which is 60.

"Almost all major cities in Indonesia, even in Jakarta, have experienced an extraordinary increase. So that the ICU rooms at the COVID Hospital have reached 83 percent," he said.

In addition, due to the massive increase in cases, the DKI Jakarta Provincial Government has even returned to strict Large-Scale Social Restrictions (PSBB) to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the community.

So, Doni hopes that the incident he mentioned above can become a whip for the community to increase compliance with health protocols. Not only that, every leader in the region must continue to remind the public.

"Every community, leaders in the regions both at the provincial and city levels to village villages, are assisted by friends of the TNI, Polri, volunteers, religious leaders, community leaders, PKK, and youth organizations should not be tired of reminding people to comply with health protocols," he said.

"Apart from that, the weather is less favorable. Therefore, we must anticipate it and do not let it occur during the long holiday, that extreme weather causes security and safety problems for us during the holidays," he concluded.