A Series Of Strategic Steps For The Government To Handle The Growing Number Of COVID-19 Cases

Illustration / Unsplash (Adam N)

JAKARTA - The increasing number of COVID-19 cases in Indonesia has prompted the government to continue to strengthen efforts and take various strategic steps. This aims to deal with and anticipate the widespread impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Various strategic steps have been taken as a result of coordination with cross-ministerial agencies, especially with the Ministry of Health and local governments," said Chief Executive of the Committee for Handling COVID-19 and National Economic Recovery Erick Thohir in a written statement, Thursday, September 24.

The various efforts that have been made are increasing the ability to test specimens, preparing and adding to the availability of hospital beds and isolation rooms, to accelerating the availability of the COVID-19 vaccine. Erick then said a number of government preparations had now shown positive results.

Regarding specimen testing, the Minister of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) said that as of September 23 yesterday, daily specimens of COVID-19 had reached 38,181 or had exceeded WHO standards. In addition, he also said that when the percentage of patients recovered had reached 73 percent.

The next strategic step is to increase the recovery trend and anticipate an increase in cases.

"The government ensures that the care needs of COVID-19 patients at referral hospitals are maintained and maintains the availability of isolation facilities for patients with mild or no symptoms," he said.

He gave an example, currently there is an Athlete House for the community in the DKI Jakarta area. Next, there are also 2 and 3 star hotels in the area. With the functioning of the Athlete's House and star hotels, Erick said this would ease the burden on hospitals and reduce the burden on medical personnel and most importantly limit the spread of the virus and transmission from People without Symptoms (OTG).

Furthermore, the committee coordinates with BUMN holding hospitals to encourage standardization of healing therapy for COVID-19 patients. The goal is to standardize clinical management, especially for doctors in areas far from big cities so that patients can improve their recovery.

In the pharmaceutical sector, KPCPEN encourages the ability of domestic pharmaceutical companies to provide medical devices and essential medicines for healing therapy for COVID-19 patients. Some antiviral drugs that are needed to treat COVID-19 patients are still imported, such as remdesivir. However, two state-owned pharmaceutical companies, namely Indofarma and Kimia Farma, are trying to produce local antiviral drugs.

Meanwhile with regard to the COVID-19 vaccine, the Government continues to accelerate its availability through bilateral and multilateral channels. Currently the government has collaborated with Biofarma and Sinovac, or Kimia Farma with G42, and is exploring partnerships with Genexine, CanSino, and AstraZeneca.

However, to increase supplies, the government continues to explore partnerships with other pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, and Novafax.

"With the addition of a multilateral cooperation mechanism with UNICEF within the COVAX Facility, which is a guarantee of speed, availability and delivery of vaccines, our efforts to hasten the availability of vaccines to protect the public are on the right track," he explained.

He also expressed his belief in the spirit of mutual cooperation of all parties which could be a great asset for the nation to face the COVID-19 pandemic. Erick continues to remind all levels of society to continue to be disciplined in wearing masks, washing hands, and maintaining distance, to prevent potential transmission.

"In the midst of the ongoing efforts of the government and striving to best serve the community and handle this pandemic, we hope that we all work together to continue to be disciplined in implementing health protocols," he concluded.