Still At War Against COVID-19, The Ministry Of Health Has Not Allowed Saf At Places Of Worship To Be Closed

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JAKARTA - Director of Prevention of Direct Infectious Disease Control (P2PML) of the Ministry of Health, Siti Nadia Tarmizi, stated that congregational prayers in places of worship have not been able to close the rows.

Because, she said, even though the current COVID-19 case in Indonesia has been sloping, the application of health protocols should not be relaxed.

"If it's not allowed to relax the health protocol, it's not allowed to keep the distance, it's not allowed to close the staff in places of worship", said Nadia in a virtual discussion, quoted Friday, October 22.

Nadia reminded us that currently, the national COVID-19 vaccination coverage has not yet reached herd immunity. Although, in some areas the achievement of vaccination is already high, the vaccination rate is not evenly distributed in all regions.

"Currently we are still at war with COVID-19, and only 50 percent have received the first dose and there is 68 percent who still have to get the second dose", said Nadia.

Not to mention, Indonesia currently has the potential to face the third wave of COVID-19 cases. Bearing in mind, shortly, there will be activities for the Prophet's Birthday, Christmas Day, until the new year 2022.

Celebrations like this, he said, would usually increase people's mobility. It is feared that the increase in mobility will be followed by an increase in the transmission of the Coronavirus.

"These potentials make it inevitable that the third wave will occur, of course, we must continue to remind the public that the pandemic is not over yet", she explained.

Therefore, Nadia said that the third wave or the third spike in COVID-19 cases in Indonesia would definitely occur. However, currently, the pandemic is under control.

"The third wave is a necessity because we have seen that one scientific publication has said that the pattern of this COVID-19 disease will cause several waves", she said.

For information, Indonesia experienced the first wave of COVID-19 from November 2020 to January 2021. This spike in cases occurred after the long holiday of the Prophet's Birthday, which was followed by the 2021 Christmas and New Year holidays.

After briefly sloping down, COVID-19 cases in Indonesia jumped again and entered the second wave in June-July 2021. This happened due to the Eid holiday and the entry of the Delta variant.