Minister Of Health Asks For More Attention To Worker Safety To Prevent The Transmission Of COVID-19

Minister of Health Budi Gunadi Sadikin (Photo: setkab.go.id)

JAKARTA - The Minister of Health of the Republic of Indonesia Budi Gunadi Sadikin asked the safety of workers in the workplace to pay more attention, especially in the health aspect to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

"The COVID-19 pandemic reminds us of the importance of occupational health and safety to protect workers from the potential dangers of occupational diseases and other health problems including infectious diseases or diseases that are currently endemic," said Budi at the webinar "Future Trends in the World of Work and OSH After the Pandemic” which was followed on the ILO's YouTube account in Jakarta, reported by Antara, Wednesday, November 10.

Budi explained that the workplace is one of the locations that has a fairly high potential for COVID-19 transmission. Social activities carried out starting from activities with the family at home, in the neighborhood to going to work, are said to be able to affect the number of positive cases in the country.

According to Budi, to prevent additional cases from occurring, there are five things that need to be done to maintain health in the work environment. One of them is screening by activating the barcode on the PeduliLindung application followed by a temperature check.

Second, the office or factory environment must establish and activate a COVID-19 Handling Task Force (Satgas) to be able to conduct behavioral surveillance as well as follow up on suspects or confirmed cases if found in the workplace.

“The pandemic is not yet expected to end. Then we will prepare ourselves to coexist with COVID-19," said Budi.

He further suggested, it is important for all components in the work environment to increase awareness of fellow workers to continue to remind the discipline of health protocols such as using masks properly, washing hands every time they do activities, and maintaining distance.

Another thing that must be considered is that workers must support each other to carry out COVID-19 vaccinations which can increase the body's immunity to the virus and be able to protect those around them.

Furthermore, increasing the knowledge of workers to better recognize the types of symptoms of COVID-19 and increasing self-awareness, is also very necessary to reduce unwanted risks.

Through these efforts, he said, workers can contribute to reducing the number of transmissions due to COVID-19 in the workplace, as well as help deal with the pandemic in the community so that workers' health can improve and the economic sector can recover.

"By carrying out these efforts, it is hoped that in the future it can also support business continuity, economic recovery, and growth, as well as higher national productivity by strengthening and increasing the application of occupational safety and health," he said.*