COVID-19 Cases Are Predicted To Rising, Minister Of Health Advises Citizens To Not Panic

Minister of Health Budi Gunadi Sadikin / Special

JAKARTA - Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin warned that there would be a bigger spike in COVID-19 cases compared to before. This is because the Ministry of Health will change the case tracking strategy (tracing).

Budi said this in a joint working meeting with Commission IX House of Representatives (DPR RI) in a working meeting with Commission IX DPR RI at the Parliament Building, Senayan, Jakarta, Tuesday, February 9.

"The number of cases will increase because more (cases) are seen. To all citizens, don't panic", said Budi.

After admitting that the tracing strategy in Indonesia was wrong before he got the tenure, Budi said that his party had issued a new strategy to find cases aggressively.

This was adapted from the tracing strategy in India. First, Indonesia must have 80 thousand tracer cases if we refer to the existing population. Unfortunately, there was only 5 thousand Tracer during the handling of the pandemic.

Therefore, Budi asked the National Army (TNI) Commander to mobilize Village Guidance Officer (Babinsa) as tracers, as well as supervisors of health protocols during the implementation of micro-based restrictions on community activities (PPKM).

"This morning at 8 o'clock I had a joint meeting with the commander of The National Army with all Village Guidance Officers. Starting tomorrow, they will be trained by the Public Health Center (Puskesmas)", he said.

Budi explained that the Public Health Center remains in command in the field for health surveillance. Later, the Village Guidance Officers will be taught how to do the tracing.

"Once there is close contact, we give them their target. Within 72 hours of tracing, 15 to 30 people were identified before 2 weeks (of infection). Once they get it, these people must be tested immediately", said Budi.

Then, this examination tool will use the antigen swab distributed from the Ministry of Health. Budi explained that the antigen is a tool for testing for COVID-19 that has been recommended by WHO.

"The good thing is that the antigen swab is fast and can be done directly on the spot because we need everything to be fast here in order to reduce the rate of transmission. If it is traced and its results are positive by the antigen swab, it will immediately count as positive case.