Thousands Of COVID-19 Positive People Refused To Enter Shopping Centers, APPBI: Government Must Make Sure They Don't Wander

JAKARTA - The Indonesian Shopping Center Association (APPBI) noted that there were thousands of people who tested positive for COVID-19 who wanted to enter shopping centers or malls.

This is known when they check in through the PeduliLindung application. As is known, the application is a requirement to enter the mall.

Since its implementation, the PeduliLindung system has recorded 1,603 people with positive status and close contacts trying to carry out public activities.

APPBI chairman Alphonzus Widjaja said the thousands of people received a black notification when scanning the QR Code at the entrance of a shopping center. Based on the notification provisions, black is a category that is prohibited from entering the shopping center.

According to Alphonzus, the handling of people exposed to COVID-19 must receive special attention from the government. Because they are supposed to isolate in a special place.

"The government must ensure that they are not free to roam in public places so that they are not inconvenient and do not endanger the general public", he said through a short message received by VOI, Sunday, September 12.

With the refusal of thousands of people with the black notification, said Alphonzus, it further emphasizes that shopping centers always enforce and implement strict, disciplined, and consistent health protocols which make shopping centers one of the safer and healthier public facilities to visit and shop.

"Shopping centers have been shown to have the ability to resist and prevent people who have been exposed to COVID-19 from entering shopping centers", he said.

Alphonzus said that currently in shopping centers, an additional protocol is being applied, namely the mandatory vaccination protocol, which is carried out through the PeduliLindung application.

He emphasized that the mandatory vaccination protocol does not eliminate and does not reduce and does not replace the health protocols that have been in place since the beginning of the pandemic, such as the need to use masks, keep a distance, wash hands, and so on.

"So now two COVID-19 protocols are being implemented in shopping centers, namely the health protocol and the mandatory vaccination protocol. The implementation of the two protocols is aimed at ensuring that everyone in the shopping center is in good health", he said.