Minister Of Health Reveals Four Keys To Handling Pandemics, Lifestyle Changes And Vaccinations

Illustration / ANTARA

JAKARTA - Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin explained four strategies to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. This strategy is in accordance with the guidelines set by the World Health Organization (WHO).

"WHO provides four strategies that must be carried out together to overcome the pandemic", Budi said in an online press conference on Guidelines for Organizing Learning in the COVID-19 Pandemic Period which was broadcast on the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture's YouTube channel, Tuesday, March 30.

Minister of Health explained that the first strategy is to change behavior or lifestyle. This change, said Budi, refers to the application of a healthy lifestyle and health protocols (prokes) in daily activities.

This strategy is the most basic way of controlling a pandemic. Moreover, reflecting on the history of pandemics that have occurred in the world, humans can adapt in the midst of a pandemic because of changes in behavior and this must be done by all parties.

"A new lifestyle, health protocols are important. Including for the educational process", he said.

The next strategy is to detect the transmission of COVID-19. This is because the virus has become a pandemic because of high transmission rates.

"This is our job (Ministry of Health, red). Testing, tracing, isolation", he said.

The third strategy, said Budi, for handling the COVID-19 pandemic is through vaccination. Even so, the former Deputy Minister of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) said that this strategy was not the main way out to free Indonesia from the pandemic.

Because the principle of vaccines is only to increase the body's resistance to COVID-19. "It's not that we're more immune like Superman", he explained.

Finally, the strategy taken is mitigation efforts. Including caring for those affected by COVID-19 so they can get well soon.

"Facing it with four strategies at once, not one. It has been proven that mankind can, and the most important thing is changes in behavior and lifestyle. Because the pandemic will last for many years", he concluded.