Epidemiologist: If Only Java And Bali Were Restricted, The Spread Of COVID-19 Would Be Difficult To Suppress

Illustration. (Photo: Unsplash)

JAKARTA - Epidemiologist from Andalas University (Unand), West Sumatra Defriman Djafri said the government must evaluate the policy to enforce restrictions on community activities (PPKM), because COVID-19 cases in the country are still increasing.

"We need to evaluate. If the number of cases goes up it is clear, and if it goes down, then confirm the restrictions that will be implemented," he said, quoted from Antara, Sunday, January 24.

He said that basically restricting the movement of people should have an impact on reducing the number of COVID-19 cases. However, the Java and Bali PPKM policies on January 11-25 have not shown the expected results.

One of the problems is that restrictions on the movement of the people cannot only be focused on one or two islands.

The Dean of the Faculty of Public Health Unand argued that if you want to limit public movement, comprehensive restrictions must be applied and not be concentrated on only two islands.

The middle ground that has been carried out by the government, namely saving health and economic aspects at the same time is considered not yet effective enough in suppressing the COVID-19 case.

"There is one thing that cannot be denied, namely the movement or mobility of people is closely related to the increase in cases," he said.

In general, if the government only imposes restrictions on the movement of people on one or two islands, while other areas do not, the COVID-19 cases will be difficult to suppress. "Because people will keep going in and out of the area," he said.

Even worse, he continued, currently many people seem to be unconcerned about the threat of a pandemic. In fact, it is not uncommon for individuals to try to trick them into an area that implements large-scale social restrictions (PSBB).

Defriman assessed that if the policies taken by the government remained like this, forever the COVID-19 case would be tug-of-war and difficult to overcome.