Proposed Homecoming Sanctions During The Pandemic Period: Social Work In COVID-19 Handling Hospitals

Illustration (Angga Nugraha / VOI)

JAKARTA - There are still many people who still want to go home to their hometowns. They rejected the government's suggestion to stay at home which is expected to break the chain of transmission of the corona virus or COVID-19.

Some of them use transportation smuggling services for travelers with goods. This phenomenon was revealed after an inspection of transports leaving the Jabodetabek area.

The Transportation Ministry's Balitbang survey in April showed that around 24 percent of residents still wanted to go home. If you look at the data of 18.34 million travelers in 2019, it means that 4.4 million people still want to go home.

There are two groups prone to being exposed to COVID-19 in the next month, namely 2 weeks before Eid Al-Fitr and 2 weeks afterward. First, the arrival of travelers in their destination areas, the second is the return of travelers to their respective domiciles in Jabodetabek.

A member of the DKI DPRD from the PDIP faction, Gilbert Simanjuntak, suggested that the DKI Provincial Government impose sanctions on recalcitrant travelers. Because, according to him, being limited to a warning was not enough to cause a deterrent effect.

The sanction, he said, is to employ travelers in hospitals and health facilities that handle COVID-19 patients.

"They can be employed as a cleaning service or food delivery person at a hospital handling COVID-19. They must have concerns about COVID-19 transmission and wear personal protective equipment (PPE) for hours," Gilbert told VOI, Tuesday, May 5.

This method, said Gilbert, is a solution so that travelers can cancel their intention to return to their hometowns from a sense of concern about the transmission of COVID-19. They must understand what it feels like to be a medical worker who is at risk of contracting the corona virus and dying.

"Punishment or sanctions for offenders in the form of social work taking care of sufferers of COVID-19 or social work in hospitals will make offenders understand the sacrifices of health workers so far," explained the Joint Chair of the Regional Joint Chiefs of the Southeast Asia Regional Office of the International Agency for Blindness Prevention, WHO Vision 2020.

Furthermore, this method can also provide income for travelers who return to their hometowns because they do not work during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Previously, the government spokesman for handling COVID-19 Achmad Yurianto (Yuri) explained that if people refrain from going home, it will reduce the transmission of the corona virus. That way, the workload for health workers will also be lighter.

"Don't go home to protect all. The success of stemming the transmission of COVID-19 will greatly affect hospital care. Because, the more patients who are treated, the heavier our burden will be to reduce the number of people who are sick and die from COVID-19," said Yuri. .

He continued, nothing can guarantee someone to avoid transmission of the corona virus during a trip to their hometown, even if they do whatever they can.

"It is very possible that we will meet and be forced to have close contact with people without symptoms or people with mild symptoms while in vehicles, at terminals, at stations, rest areas, or in public toilets along the way," he said.

In fact, it may turn out that those who transmit the virus come from the homecoming residents themselves. They carry the virus without symptoms or with mild symptoms, because it comes from areas affected by COVID-19. As a result, families in their hometowns have the potential to contract COVID-19.