Government Prepares Ways To Prevent COVID-19 Transmission In Refugees Camp Of Disaster Victims In East Nusa Tenggara

Head of BNPB Doni Monardo visits the refugee camps for disaster victims in NTT (DOK. BNPB)

JAKARTA - Head of the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) Doni Monardo said the government has prepared a number of ways to prevent transmission of COVID-19 among refugees from floods disaster in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT).

One of them, the government will provide a fund for occupancy so that the disaster victims can evacuate to their relatives' homes.

This is done in order to reduce the accumulation of victims of flood disasters in evacuation site. However, Doni did not elaborate on the nominal value of the funds.

"We will do everything possible for refugees to rent their family homes by providing residential funds to each family after the local government submits a proposal to the BNPB", Doni said in an online press conference broadcast on the YouTube channel of the Presidential Secretariat, Tuesday, April 6.

In addition, the government will also distribute rapid antigen kits to carry out health screening in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The BNPB together with the Ministry of Health distribute rapid antigen kits to all regions so that they can carry out screening for residents, including groups from outside, the National Army and the National Police Force (TNI and Polri), as well as volunteers", he said.

In addition, in the future, the BNPB will soon build houses belonging to residents that are heavily damaged to lightly damaged.

"Where is the budget prepared for heavy damage of IDR 50 million, IDR 25 million for moderate damage, and IDR 10 million for light damage", he said.

the BNPB previously reported that 128 people died as a result of natural disasters in the form of floods and landslides in a number of areas in East Nusa Tenggara.

"A total of 128 people died during extreme weather in these areas, with details of 67 people from Lembata Regency, East Flores 49, and Alor 12", said Head of the BNPB Disaster Information and Communication Data Center Raditya Jati in a written statement, Tuesday, April 6.

the BNPB said that extreme weather due to the impact of the Seroja tropical cyclone would still potentially occur in NTT region in the next few days.

Raditya said the floods and landslides that occurred in NTT on Sunday, at around 01.00 a.m. local time, also caused around 8.000 residents to be evacuated.

Based on data from the BNPB Operations Control Center (Pusdalops) as of Monday, April 5 at 23.00 p.m. local time, as many as 2.019 family heads (KK) or 8.424 residents were displaced, and 1.083 families or 2.683 other residents were affected.

"The local government continues to update data from rapid assessments in the field. Residents who have been evacuated are scattered in five districts within NTT Province", he said.

According to the BNPB data, the largest evacuation sites identified was in East Sumba Regency with a total of 7.212 people or 1.803 families, Lembata 958 people, Rote Ndao 672 people or 153 families, West Sumba 284 people or 63 families and East Flores 256 people.

In addition, this tropical cyclone also affects 8 administrative regions of districts and cities. The 8 regions are Kupang City, East Flores Regency, Malacca, Lembata, Ngada, West Sumba, East Sumba, Rote Ndao and Alor.