COVID-19 Cases Are Rising, Aceh Provincial Government Is Advised To Implement WFH Before PSBB

Checking body temperature (Photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - The Aceh Provincial Government is advised to re-implement work from home (WFH), before imposing large-scale social restrictions (PSBB) in line with the increase in COVID-19 cases.

This was conveyed by the Aceh Indonesian Doctors Association (IDI). The Chairperson of the Aceh IDI, Dr. Safrizal Rahman, said that there were three recommendations that had been submitted to the Aceh Provincial Government, namely to re-enforce the WFH system, then curfew, to the implementation of the PSBB in the Tanah Rencong area.

"A joint effort is needed to reduce the number of positive cases of COVID-19 in Aceh. IDI Aceh proposes a gradual limitation to a target 'positive rate' of five percent, with 'active case finding'," said Safrizal as quoted by Antara, Thursday, August 13.

IDI saw a surge in positive cases in Aceh, from initially only 20 cases in June to 674 cases in August 2020, then the number of patients who died had reached 21 people.

He said the case fatality rate (CFT) or the death rate for COVID-19 in Aceh reached 3.4 percent. This means that 3.4 deaths out of 100 positive COVID-19 patients in Indonesia's westernmost province have died.

"This figure is very volatile, so it is possible that CFR in Aceh could increase along with the increase in positive cases of COVID-19," he said.

With a total PCR swab examination of around six thousand samples, the positive rate or number of positive patients for COVID-19 in Aceh will be 11.23 percent.

That means, continued Safrizal, of the 100 people examined, 11.23 were positive, while the WHO threshold was five percent.

"This illustrates that community transmission is still high and the test coverage is not sufficient to detect positive cases," he said.

In fact, many Acehnese health workers have also been infected with COVID-19, while the number of trained paramedics for handling patients infected with the virus is still limited.

IDI Aceh advised the provincial government to limit activities starting with WFH in an effort to avoid crowds and transmission in the workplace.

If the WFH movement has not been able to reduce the rate of adding positive cases of COVID-19, then a curfew is necessary to reduce crowds at night, especially public spaces such as cafes and coffee shops.

"If the number of positive cases continues to increase, it is necessary to consider submitting a PSBB to stop the spread of the corona virus," he said.