Minister Of Health: Attitude Of Endemic Transition Through Self-awareness In Facing COVID-19

Minister of Health Budi Gunadi Sadikin/ANTARA/Andi Firdaus).

Minister of Health Budi Gunadi Sakin said the momentum of the transition to endemic needs to be addressed by the public through an initiative to protect themselves from the threat of COVID-19 accompanied by responsible behavior.

"The transition of the pandemic to endemic is important for the participation of the community and public awareness regarding disease, that's very important," said Budi Gunadi Sadikin as quoted by ANTARA, Monday, June 19.

He said the public needs to understand that the best intervention in dealing with the current situation is to realize how he is dealing with health problems.

The situation of dengue fever is one example. The government does not force and does not intervene in the community, because it is considered to have understood that the rainy season there will be many dengue fever mosquitoes, so the right behavior is not to leave the house too often, said Budi.

According to Budi, aedes aegypti mosquitoes cause dengue fever to roam during the day, in contrast to the anopheles mosquito that causes malaria that appears at night.

"So you don't have to put your pants on, or when you go out, don't bite mosquitoes, or if we are in the house, clean the stagnant water so that there are no mosquitoes. It all becomes public knowledge so they know how to process it and avoid it," he said.

The same applies to COVID-19. The government's intervention in implementing health protocols marks that the health system has not gone well, for example through the obligation to wear masks.

"The current policy is again an initiative and responsibility for individuals. If you are sick, you already know that there is treatment and it will be treated immediately so that you can recover," he said.

The situation towards endemic in Indonesia is just waiting for President Joko Widodo's decision to revoke the public health emergency status as stated in Presidential Decree No. 11 of 2020 concerning the Determination of the 2019 Corona Virus Disease Community Health Emergency (COVID-19).

"Later the President will announce it, he has decided the date, we just better wait for him. If we can meet the President, ask him, he has given ancer-ancer and this is his authority," he said.