Jokowi And Budi Karya: Leave Together With The Birthday Of The Prophet Muhammad SAW Do Not Become A New Cluster For COVID-19

Indonesian President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) together with Minister of Transportation Budi Karya. (Photo by: Setkab)

JAKARTA - Leave with the Prophet Muhammad SAW's birthday on October 28-30 2020 will soon arrive. As in previous years, some people will take advantage of the long holiday moments to travel with their families.

However, the conditions for this long holiday are different from previous years, considering that Indonesia and the world are currently experiencing the COVID-19 pandemic, which for eight months has not shown any significant signs of decline.

The problem is that when people travel to fill their leave time, there will be crowds in various transportation locations such as public transportation, airports, stations, seaports, even at toll road rest areas (rest areas).

The condition of the crowd is what is feared could lead to a new cluster of COVID-19 transmission during the holidays at the end of October 2020. Of course the new cluster cases where there is a significant increase in positive COVID-19 communities during the long Islamic New Year holidays (1 Muharam) at the end of August, do not happen again this time.

Learning from this experience, the Ministry of Transportation (Kemenhub) together with a number of transportation sector stakeholders have and will take anticipatory steps to reduce the crowds of people traveling by means of transportation.

Quoting Antara, Monday, October 26, Minister of Transportation Budi Karya Sumadi said that he saw that the tendency of people to travel using all types of transportation would increase during the long holiday at the end of October and it is predicted that there will be an increase in the movement of people and vehicles by around 10-20 percent.

President Joko Widodo had previously warned against anticipating the long holiday at the end of October so that there would be no increase in the rate of transmission of COVID-19, as happened after the long holiday with the Islamic New Year's leave in August.

To anticipate this, the Minister of Transportation will coordinate with land, sea and air transportation operators to consistently enforce strict health protocols from the start of departure, to the time of travel, to arrival at the destination.

The Ministry of Transportation will carry out random checks to ensure that the health protocols have been carried out properly by transportation operators.

These operators have an important role to play in facilitating the movement of people between cities, between regions. If they do not obey, they are worried that unwanted infections will arise.

Show that the transport operator must be disciplined and not compromise health protocols. If anything is found to be reactive or positive, it must be prohibited from leaving.

Transportation operators are also asked to increase the frequency of trips to prevent the accumulation of passengers if at any time there is a surge in potential passengers, especially for land transportation.

Apart from these steps, the Ministry of Transportation also coordinates with the Heads of Transportation Services in the regions to closely guard the implementation of health protocols in cities to regencies.

Then also to anticipate congestion which could become a problem that could cause transmission because it is prone to crowds, thousands of police officers and transportation agencies will be deployed to regulate the smooth flow of traffic.

The Ministry of Transportation predicts that the peak of vehicle flow will occur on Tuesday night, October 27 after office hours and October 28, while the final peak of leave will occur on Sunday, November 1, 2020.

[/ read_more]

In order to avoid congestion on the road, people who want to take a vacation are advised not to rely on that one day, to prevent congestion which is potentially prone to transmission.

The Ministry of Transportation predicts the potential for congestion to occur at three points, namely, first, roads from the direction of Jakarta to the east (West, Central and East Java), Second, the ferry to Sumatra, and the third at the airport.

One other thing that deserves attention from the public is related to the high rainfall conditions recently, so that people are urged to be careful in driving and ensure that the condition of vehicles such as engines, brakes, tires and self is in prime condition.

Then it is suggested for people who use mass transportation such as planes and other public transportation not to take off their masks as much as possible, delay eating and drinking, and do not talk on public transportation.

Even if you are forced to eat and drink because the long distance trip is more than 2 hours, you should return to using a mask after eating and drinking.

No need to worry

PT Angkasa Pura I (Persero) ensures that the 15 airports it manages apply health protocols so that passengers do not have to worry that these locations will become pandemic and healthy clusters during the flight.

There is no need to worry about being ensured after management has implemented health protocols at all managed airports, from routine disinfecting, rapid inspection of prospective passengers to digital document processing.

The fifteen airports managed by AP I are Bali I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport, Surabaya Juanda Airport, Makassar Sultan Hasanuddin Airport, Balikpapan Sultan Aji Muhammad Sulaiman Airport, Frans Kaisiepo Biak Airport, Manado Sam Ratulangi Airport, and Banjarmasin Syamsudin Noor Airport.

Also Semarang Ahmad Yani Airport, Yogyakarta Adisutjipto Airport, Yogyakarta International Airport in Kulon Progo, Surakarta Adi Soemarmo Airport, Lombok Praya International Airport, Ambon Pattimura Airport, El Tari Kupang Airport, and Sentani Jayapura Airport.

In an effort to provide confidence to the public that flying will be healthy and safe, AP I has carried out a number of important policies, including preparing rapid test facilities for prospective passengers, as well as preparing digital document management so as not to cause accumulation of potential passengers.

He gave an example, for the rapid test conducted at AP I airport, the management has provided Rp. 85 thousand per person, cheaper than the normal price of Rp. 150 thousand.

Rapid test is still one of the requirements for completing documents for air travel in accordance with the Task Force Circular Letter Number 9 of 2020 which is also referred to by the Ministry of Transportation.

In a pandemic condition that is still high and has not ended like now, holidays at home are a good choice. But even if you have to vacation outside the city, people are asked to remain disciplined in applying health protocols for the common good.

[/ read_more]