PSI Worries That Residents Reject The Isolation Policy For All COVID-19 Patients

JAKARTA - Chairman of the PSI DPRD DKI Faction Idris Ahmad questioned the maturity of the plan to place all positive cases of COVID-19 with mild symptoms and without symptoms to be isolated in the DKI Provincial Government's health facilities.

Idris said, the pick-up mechanism to the isolation facility of the COVID-19 referral hospital for residents who are self-isolating at home needs to be considered. It is feared that there will be resistance from residents.

"The pick-up mechanism to the isolation facility needs to be considered carefully. This is very sensitive, considering the many cases where residents refuse and need to be picked up by force, such as in Probolinggo, East Java," Idris told reporters, Thursday, September 3.

Because, if all COVID-19 positive patients must be isolated in a hospital, then the room for economic activity will be hampered.

Idris also questioned the isolation scheme for daily workers, where they have to make a living every day. "Is there any special social assistance for them? Is there protection from layoffs? All of these points have not been explained," he said.

Furthermore, Idris questioned the readiness of the isolation facility for COVID-19 patients. Given, as he knows, the DKI Jakarta Provincial Government has not provided sufficient infrastructure for this isolation policy.

"In addition to the facts on the ground, many health centers have difficulty referring to residents who live in densely populated areas with minimal facilities forced to isolate independently, this increases the potential for transmission in housing clusters," he said.

Thus, he asked not to let this isolation policy become just an empty discourse like an emergency brake, so that people again become victims because of the unclear implementation in the field.

As is known, the Governor of DKI Jakarta Anies Baswedan plans a policy for all COVID-19 isolation to be carried out at a referral hospital.

Currently, regulations governing this are being drafted. Later, no more patients confirmed positive for COVID-19 will carry out independent isolation in their respective homes.

"In the future, people who are positively exposed must be isolated in government-owned health facilities. The regulations are currently being prepared. That way, we will be able to break the chain more effectively," said Anies.