How The Task Force Controls The Increasing Number Of COVID-19 Cases In Three Provinces

JAKARTA - Chairperson of the Task Force for the Acceleration of Handling COVID-19 Doni Monardo plans to visit three provinces that have experienced an increase in COVID-19 cases. The three provinces are East Java, South Kalimantan and South Sulawesi.

This visit, he said, aims to provide support for the three provinces in fighting the spread of the corona virus.

"The plan is that next week, together with the Minister of Health, I will visit several provinces which have been submitted to provide support," Doni said in an online press conference broadcast on the Cabinet Secretariat YouTube account, Thursday, June 4.

During his visit, Doni will improve the capacity of the three provinces in the areas of health facilities, medical devices, and tracking of infected people and those who have close contact with positive patients.

Especially for East Java, continued Doni, the Task Force and the Ministry of Health have provided a number of assistance in the form of permanent polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing machines and cars. "This includes assistance from the State Intelligence Agency," he said.

Regarding conditions in East Java, Doni explained that currently hospital facilities in the area are congested. This then became his concern. Because, he did not want doctors and nurses to experience decreased immunity due to lack of rest.

Moreover, a similar experience had occurred in Jakarta when the first COVID-19 outbreak occurred. He said, at that time many doctors and nurses were tired and they ended up contracting them.

"They are the heroes of humanity that we must protect and protect. So that we together with the Ministry of Health will always try our best to provide protection," he said.

Regarding the latest condition in East Java, Doni explained, currently East Java Province and Surabaya City have been able to build emergency hospitals to deal with infected communities. "So, the burden of referral hospitals can be reduced," he said.

Previously, President Joko Widodo asked the Task Force for the Acceleration of Handling COVID-19 to pay attention to three provinces where the virus spread rate is still high. He conveyed this in a limited meeting related to handling COVID-19.

"I want us to concentrate. The task force or ministry, and the TNI Polri, mainly concentrate in three provinces with high distribution rates, namely East Java, South Sulawesi and South Kalimantan," Jokowi said when opening the ratas which were broadcast on the YouTube account of the Presidential Secretariat, Thursday, 4 June.

He said, handling COVID-19 in the three provinces needed special attention so that the transmission of the virus there was immediately suppressed and decreased.

"Please, this becomes a special concern so that we can reduce the number even further," said the former governor of DKI Jakarta.