Yogyakarta City Government Considers COVID-19 Situation As The Basis For Face-to-Face Schools

Deputy Mayor of Yogyakarta Heroe Poerwadi (ANTARA/Eka AR)

YOGYAKARTA - The Yogyakarta City Government will consider the COVID-19 situation as a basis for determining whether to extend online learning or to return to holding face-to-face learning in schools.

"The development of the COVID-19 case is very situational. Whether next week we can learn face-to-face or not, it all depends on the condition of the case," said Yogyakarta Deputy Mayor Heroe Poerwadi in Yogyakarta, reported by Antara, Friday, March 11.

According to him, school activities in Yogyakarta City do not only involve the city's residents but also students as well as teachers and school employees from other districts in DIY.

Therefore, continued Heroe, the Yogyakarta City Government will be very careful in making policies to determine the learning mechanism.

"When cases increase, what must be done is to pull the brakes to limit various activities and interactions in the community, including learning activities in schools," he said.

Since March 1, Yogyakarta City has decided to hold full online learning. The policy expires on Monday, March 14 and will be re-evaluated.

"In the past week, COVID-19 cases have indeed shown a downward trend. However, once again we must not ignore it," he said.

As a tourism city other than a student city, continued Heroe, the city of Yogyakarta also accepts tourists from many regions, especially now that there is no obligation for travelers to carry out antigen or PCR tests if they have undergone complete and booster doses of vaccination.

"This condition is also our consideration. Because there may be asymptomatic people who then interact with residents of the City of Yogyakarta and transmit the virus so that the cases will increase again," he said. On Friday, March 11, there were an additional 107 new cases of COVID-19 in Yogyakarta City with 552 patients recovered or finished undergoing isolation and no patient died.

Thus, until now there are 2,282 active cases in Yogyakarta City, a decrease compared to Thursday (10/3) with 2,730 active cases.

Previously, the Head of the Yogyakarta City Youth and Sports Education Office, Budhi Asrori, hoped that face-to-face learning activities could still be carried out, specifically for final grade students, 6th grade elementary school and 9 junior high school students.

The limited face-to-face learning for final year students is expected to improve students' preparation for the regional education standardization assessment (ASPD) in May.