Extension Of The PSBB Which Is Considered A 'time Bomb'

Illustration (Angga Nugraha / VOI)

JAKARTA - The DKI Jakarta Provincial Government is extending the status of Large-Scale Social Restrictions (PSBB) to prevent the transmission of COVID-19 until May 22. The policy was considered not the best solution because it was only buying time without considering other impacts it had.

Referring to the implementation of the first PSBB, the economic impact was felt. Many people have lost their livelihoods as a result of the company's dismissal for closing their businesses. Even those who are fired find it difficult to find replacement jobs in this pandemic.

The impact of this dismissal resulted in an increase in the crime rate and a high number of psychiatric disorders or depression in the community.

As happened in the Kembangan area, West Jakarta, a man with the initials JT was found dead hanging in his boarding house, Tuesday, April 21. Based on the results of the interim examination, it is suspected that this man was depressed because he was fired or dismissed from his workplace.

Then, during this pandemic, the crime rate this month also increased compared to last year, when referring to police data.

Public Policy Analysis Trubus Rahadiansyah said that the two cases were only small examples of the downturn in the economy since the implementation of the PSBB. He predicts that there will be a bigger impact when the PSBB policy is extended if it is not handled properly.

"This can be said to be a time bomb. It is just waiting to see when the same cases will appear but in greater numbers," Trubus told VOI , Thursday, April 23.

He added that social assistance from the government is considered unreliable in times like this. "With the (social) assistance scheme of Rp. 600 thousand in 3 installments, the community cannot rely on it to live for 28 days," said Trubus.

For this reason, he advised the central and provincial governments to immediately change the pattern of preventing the spread of COVID-19. According to him, the government can take advantage of the month of Ramadan to implement a regional quarantine. Because he considered the PSBB policy unable to reduce the increase in positive patients with the corona virus.

The regional quarantine, said Trubus, would prevent the people of Jakarta from leaving the area and those outside the area from entering the capital city. This can be done to reduce the spread of the virus and become a reference in determining the next steps.

"If this method (PSBB) does not work, at least it can be used as a reference or comparison for the next steps," said Trubus.

Governor of DKI Jakarta Anies Baswedan extended the status of Large-Scale Social Restrictions (PSBB) to prevent transmission of COVID-19 until May 22, 2020. The Jakarta PSBB should end on April 23 at 23.59 WIB, but Anies decided to extend it until May 22.

The decision to extend the PSBB, said Anies, was based on the results of discussions with experts in the field of infectious diseases and looking at data on developments in the transmission of COVID-19 to date.

"We decided to extend the implementation of the PSBB. The PSBB was extended for 28 days. This means that the second period starts April 24 to May 22, 2020," said Anies at the City Hall of DKI, Central Jakarta, Wednesday, April 22.

The study that influenced the decision to extend the PSBB was data on the movement of positive cases of COVID-19 in DKI which continued to grow. There has been no significant slowdown in the increase in cases, while the rate of increase from days per day is relatively constant.

Even so, Anies saw a decrease in the trend of cases from before the PSBB was implemented to ahead of the extension of the PSBB period. Based on data held by the DKI Provincial Government, when there were calls to limit work and school activities from home from March 16 to March 22, the number of cases increased by about 3.16 times over 5 days.

Then, when there were operational restrictions on public transportation that took effect from March 23 to April 9, the number of cases was still high, namely 4.83 times over 17 days.

Meanwhile, when the PSBB took effect from April 10 to April 22, the trend of adding positive cases slowed to 1.88 times over 13 days. Based on these data, Anies hopes that with the extension of the PSBB, the increase in positive cases of COVID-19 will slow down, along with the increase in recovered patients.

"The more we are disciplined to be at home, reduce our activities outside, the less interaction there will be, the less transmission will be. God willing, this outbreak can be resolved quickly," he said.