COVID-19 Cases Rise, South Sumatra Satpol PP Reactivate Mask Operations In Public Places

ILLUSTRATION/ANTARA/M Riezko Bima Elko P

PALEMBANG - The Civil Service Police Unit of South Sumatra Province (Satpol PP Sumsel) has reactivated the operation for public compliance in wearing masks when doing activities in public spaces.

The head of the South Sumatra Satpol PP Aris Saputra said the compliance operation was carried out following the government's policy of requiring the use of masks again to mitigate the transmission of COVID-19 which was recorded to increase again.

"It's just that the operation is socializing so we put more emphasis on a persuasive approach to the public to use masks as a health protocol," he said as quoted by ANTARA, Wednesday, July 13.

The government predicts that there will be a wave of COVID-19 cases in mid-July 2022 due to the emergence of the Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 variants.

From there, the Kasatpol ensured that, although it was socialization, in the future it would not rule out the possibility that the operation would also impose social fines for people who do not comply.

"Sanctions are a last resort, but do not rule out the possibility, the most important thing for us is to raise public awareness of wearing masks again," he said.

The implementation of the mask compliance operation will be carried out for some time in the future together with Satpol PP in other regencies/cities, targeting such as malls, restaurants, coffee shops and public transportation modes.

"Hopefully the public can return to complying with health protocols, for the health of themselves together," he added.

Previously, the Palembang City Government had asked residents to return to wearing masks when doing activities indoors or outdoors as an effort to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.

Palembang Mayor Harnojoyo said the request was a response to the recent increase in COVID-19 cases that occurred nationally, without exception in the city of Palembang.

Based on data from the Palembang City Health Office, it was recorded that there were additional new active COVID-19 cases in this city with an average number of 5-10 cases per day, starting to be recorded since mid-June 2022, with the total as of Tuesday (12/7) recorded as many as 65 cases.

"So this health protocol is important, not even limited to COVID-19 but to maintain a healthy body from other diseases, based on studies by health workers, about 86 percent of infectious diseases enter the body through the respiratory system," he said.