47 Churches Of One Church In COVID-19 Exposed Cruise Line

Head of the Palangka Raya City COVID-19 Handling Task Force Emi Abriyani (center) / ANTARA

PALANGKA RAYA - A total of 47 congregants from a church in Palangka Raya City, Central Kalimantan have tested positive for COVID-19. This condition was discovered after an investigation by the local city COVID-19 Task Force Health Team.

"Currently there is a cluster from one of the churches in Jalan Rajawali with a positive number of 47 congregations," Emi Abriyani, Head of the Palangka Raya City COVID-19 Handling Task Force, said in Palangka Raya, quoted by Antara, Friday, December 11.

Because of this incident, his party immediately sent a letter to the church management to carry out a temporary closure for 14 days.

"The temporary closure is to prevent the virus from incubating for 14 days. In addition, it is also an effort to cut off local transmission among church congregations," Emi said.

During the closing period, the "Kota Cantik" COVID-19 Handling Task Force will carry out sterilization in the church environment by spraying disinfectant liquid.

Emi expressed this statement after a meeting on handling COVID-19 in Palangka Raya City in the context of facing Christmas and the spike in cases of the spread of the virus originating from China.

"For the implementation of Christmas, the Task Force decided that the church could carry out services on December 24-26, then on December 31, 2020 and on January 1, 2021. In addition to the church, there were also seven people from one of the parties who were positive for COVID-19," Emi said.

He also asked church administrators to limit the attendance of the congregation to worship by around 30 percent, then the service was divided into several sessions to avoid congregation and crowding.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, December 10, there were an additional 34 positive COVID-19 patients, so that the accumulation of positive COVID-19 patients was recorded at 1,611 cases.

He said that based on data compiled by the task force, 243 people of the capital city of Central Kalimantan who are still under treatment are 15.08 percent of the total positive cases.

Meanwhile, the cure rate was at 80.20 percent of the total positive cases or recorded as many as 1,292 cases recovered from exposure to COVID-19.

Of all the COVID-19 cases that exist, there were also 76 patient deaths after an additional two cases died. Meanwhile, there were 822 people with suspected COVID-19 status.