Task Force Asks Regions To Learn From West Kalimantan And Riau About Handling COVID-19

JAKARTA - Spokesperson for the Task Force for Handling COVID-19 Wiku Adisasmito asked the local government to learn about handling COVID-19 from West Kalimantan (Kalbar) and Riau Provinces.

Wiku said, these two provinces have yellow risk zones or districts/cities with a low risk of COVID-19 transmission, which dominate from other risk zones.

"There are lessons that can be taken from two provinces whose risk zoning is dominated by the yellow zone. The two provinces are West Kalimantan and Riau," Wiku said in a Youtube broadcast by the Presidential Secretariat, Thursday, February 5.

West Kalimantan, said Wiku, has a total of 10 districts/cities in the yellow zone or 71 percent of the total districts/cities. Orange zone as many as 4 districts/cities.

"Based on information from the West Kalimantan Health Service, a special effort is guarding all entry points in Pontianak with intensive coordination between the Task Force and the Health Office, either at the airport or at the port," said Wiku.

Then, the West Kalimantan Health Training Unit also prepared PCR swabs and self-quarantine facilities. This unit focuses on maintaining good health and nutritional intake.

Meanwhile, Riau Province has 8 yellow zone districts/cities or 67 percent of the total districts/cities.

The results of coordination with the Riau Health Office, the handling efforts made to strengthen case tracking and close contact tracing were not only carried out on families, but also on people who had interacted in activities during the past 10-14 days.

"Even though the testing capacity is still low, efforts have been diverted into massive education for independent isolation for 14 days on close contact," he said.

In addition, health protocols are being enforced more seriously with the establishment of provincial level regional regulations as a legal umbrella for the two provinces to strictly enforce health protocols.

"We hope that what these two provinces do can be an example and motivation for other provinces, to improve handling as much as possible. Competing to suppress transmission so that the risk zoning can move to yellow and green zones," said Wiku.