Government Prepares Centralized Isolation Using Pelni Ships

JAKARTA - The government has prepared centralized isolation for COVID-19 patients using a ship owned by PT Pelni (Persero) in order to shift the application of self-isolation to centralized so that health workers can monitor it more and reduce the death rate.

"The government is preparing for centralized isolation in the form of a ship, namely the Pelni ship, and this trial is carried out in Makassar, now it is being prepared in Medan City, namely KM Bukit Raya with a capacity of about 1,000 beds," said the Coordinating Minister for the Economy as Chair of the COVID-19 Handling Committee and National Economic Recovery (KPC-PEN) Airlangga Hartarto quoted by Antara, Monday, August 16.

In addition, the government is also preparing for centralized isolation using ships in Lampung with a capacity of 1,000 beds, in Padang City, in Bitung with a capacity of 1,000 beds, as well as in the Sorong and Jayapura areas with a capacity of up to 2,000 beds which are operated until the 2020 PON event.

Airlangga said other centralized isolation also took advantage of existing facilities such as hajj homestays, education and training buildings belonging to agencies, as well as various other facilities including at the village, sub-district, and city district levels prepared by the COVID-19 Task Force.

The Coordinating Minister for the Economy expressed his gratitude to the regional government and the Indonesian National Armed Forces (TNI-Polri) in the regions in encouraging the implementation of an integrated handling of COVID-19. He encouraged local governments to increase budget absorption, especially the budget for handling COVID-19 and empowering regional economies so that the handling of the pandemic and economic recovery could be accelerated.

The government has again decided to extend PPKM levels 4, 3 and 2 in the Java-Bali region on August 17-23 2021. Meanwhile, for areas outside Java-Bali, the PPKM will continue to be implemented which has been running from August 10 to August 23, 2021.

Airlangga explained that there was a decline in COVID-19 cases outside Java-Bali to around 31 percent of the total national cases, or down 9.5 percent. Active cases outside Java-Bali were recorded at 50.8 percent, cure rate 81.51 percent, and death cases 2.8 percent.

President Joko Widodo's directives in handling COVID-19 include three focuses, namely suppressing mobility; handling upstream with priority on wearing masks; as well as strengthening 3T or testing, tracing, treatment which is increased up to 10 times; shift the application of self-isolation to centralized isolation; and increasing the number of vaccinations to equal the national average.