Crowds Of Rizieq Shihab Pick Up Fills Soekarno-Hatta Airport, Epidemiologist: Very Possible COVID-19 Cluster Occurs

Situation of Terminal 3 Soekarno-Hatta Airport (Photo / Special)

JAKARTA - The crowd to pick up the Grand Imam of the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) Rizieq Shihab, who crowded at Soekarno-Hatta Airport during the COVID-19 pandemic, became the spotlight of epidemiologist from Australia's Griffith University, Dicky Budiman.

Seeing the large number of people who gathered without heeding the health protocols for preventing COVID-19, such as maintaining distance and wearing masks in the crowd, he considered that it was very possible that a COVID-19 cluster would occur later.

"Every dense crowd like that, such a crowd where conditions are not yet under control is indicated by a national positivity rate which is still above 10 percent including in Jakarta, not yet five percent and we do not know where it has come from, yes, of course this. It is very possible that there will be a cluster, "said Dicky to VOI, Tuesday, November 10.

If in the future there are parties who argue that after the crowd was not found clusters, he then reminded that the cluster of the spread of COVID-19 was not absent but undetectable due to low testing. "So (crowding, ed) this is not a safe thing, no," he said.

Furthermore, he said, the low intervention against COVID-19 through testing to tracking cases after a crowd like this would also have the potential to cause an explosion of high cases in the community. Moreover, in today's society, many viruses spread through people without symptoms.

This is what then makes the curve in Indonesia instead of flattening out even higher. "Because the 3T (Tracing, Testing, Treatment) and 3M (Washing Hands, Keeping Distance, and Wearing Masks) interventions do not synergize to be able to hit," he said.

"Assuming it means that it has reached the peak. Now, on the contrary, it is soaring that many people are aware or not that many people are infected even though they are not symptomatic due to age, high immunity but in the future they will experience health problems in the long term," he added.

If later the increase occurs, the hospital will be affected in the future. If it is not handled properly, the increase in the number of active cases will be even higher, the morbidity rate in the hospital will also increase, and this will have an impact on the death rate.

"That is why the national death rate, both provincial and regional, is stagnant," he said.

Previously, Rizieq Shihab arrived in Indonesia after more than 3 years in Saudi Arabia. Rizieq Shihab was greeted by a crowd of pick-ups who filled the Terminal 3 area of Soekarno-Hatta Airport. Judging from the live streaming of Front TV's YouTube account, Rizieq Shihab returned to Indonesia with his family. Meanwhile, the pick-up crowd filled all sides of the arrival terminal area from the international route.

There were also lines forming a fence to make way for Rizieq Shihab from terminal 3 of Soekarno-Hatta Airport.

The crowd to pick up Rizieq Shihab had been moving since early this morning. It was reported that there was a total traffic jam towards Soekarno-Hatta Airport this morning. Prospective passengers even reportedly had to walk about 1 kilometer because the vehicle could not move. Apart from crowding around the airport, the crowd was also at the residence of the FPI High Priest in the Petamburan area, Jakarta.

They also held zikir, salawatan, and prayed for Habib Rizieq's safety while on the way.

Rizieq uses a Saudia Airlines plane with flight number SV 816 and is expected to arrive at Terminal III of Soetta Airport, Tuesday, November 10, 2020 at 09.00 WIB.