PKS: The Death Rate Of COVID-19 In Indonesia Is Higher Than The World Due To Poor Handling Of The Pandemic

COVID-19 illustration (Pixabay)

JAKARTA - The Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) said the death rate due to COVID-19 in Indonesia was higher than the world figure due to poor handling of the pandemic. This was conveyed by the Chairperson of the COVID-19 Team from the PKS DPR RI faction Netty Prasetiyani Aher in response to President Joko Widodo's statement about the high mortality rate in Indonesia.

Netty said this assessment emerged because until now Indonesia was still experiencing a doctor crisis and there was a shortage of isolation rooms and Intensive Care Unit (ICU) rooms to treat COVID-19 patients.

"This condition occurs because our health system is poor in handling a pandemic. If our handling of a pandemic is good, we will not experience a doctor crisis, a shortage of PPE, a shortage of isolation rooms and ICUs and there will not be an exponential spike in cases after one semester of grappling with the pandemic," Netty said in a written statement quoted on Tuesday, September 29.

He also said that when other countries were preparing to face the next wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, Indonesia was struggling to anticipate the first wave. Not only that, Netty also mentioned that the current spread curve of the virus in Indonesia has not slowed down significantly.

So, in the future, he said that President Jokowi and his staff must do a number of things. First, the government must curb the pandemic rate directly by preventing the emergence of new clusters.

"There must be hard efforts to break the chain of transmission in offices, public transportation, markets and shopping centers, school or campus dormitories, meetings and hospitals. In fact, government offices are the contributor to the highest number of cases in DKI. the public is sterile and everyone obeys health protocols. If necessary, use the Indonesian National Police to maintain order there, "he explained.

The next step, he continued, is to ensure the availability of health facilities including the capacity of isolation beds, ICUs, ventilators, and human resources (HR).

Then, in the next step, he encouraged the government to continue to increase the capacity of specimen testing to comply with the World Health Organization (WHO) standard, which is 1 per 1,000 population per week.

"And the most important thing is to focus first on the health aspect. Prioritize budget resources, human resources, time, programs on the health aspect," he said.

"Didn't the President remind all his staff at the beginning of September to show an aura of crisis and prioritize health aspects rather than economic recovery? Has this been carried out properly or is it just a wind," he added.

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Previously, President Jokowi said that the cure rate for COVID-19 patients in Indonesia was currently lower than the world cure rate. Therefore, he asked for the treatment of COVID-19 patients to follow the standards of the Ministry of Health.

"The average recovery in our country is 73.76 percent. This is lower than the world's recovery at 73.85 percent," said Jokowi when opening a limited meeting with the Committee for Handling COVID-19 and National Economic Recovery which was broadcast on the YouTube account of the Secretariat. President, Monday, September 28.

The standards from the Ministry of Health, said Jokowi, must be applied in all health facilities, both in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), isolation rooms, and in quarantine houses. "This is very important, so we hope that the death rate will decrease and the recovery rate will be even better," he said.

In the ratas, Jokowi also mentioned the average active case of COVID-19. He said, the current average number of cases in Indonesia is lower than the world's active cases.

"The data that I have obtained, as of 27 September 2020, the average active cases in Indonesia is 22.46 percent. This is slightly lower than the world average of active cases which reached 23.13 percent. I think this is good to continue to be improved again. , "he said.

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