Epidemiologist Proposes Regional Quarantine In Kudus

ILLUSTRATION/BETWEEN

JAKARTA - Epidemiologist who is also a teaching staff at the University of Indonesia's (UI) Faculty of Public Health, Tri Yunis Miko Wahyono, proposed that Kudus Regency, Central Java, conduct a regional quarantine. The lockdown is meant to contain the spike in cases and stop the spread of COVID-19.

"I have suggested that Kudus should quarantine the regency area," Yunis said as quoted by Antara, Thursday, June 10.

Yunis said that with a significant increase in cases, it would be necessary to quarantine the area and disable all activities, except those of a very important nature. The regional quarantine is carried out not only for villages, but throughout the Kudus Regency area to accelerate the handling of COVID-19 in the midst of a high increase in cases.

"Quarantine all districts in order to maintain the security and safety of residents, not just villages. So completely disable all activities except the essential ones," he said.

Regional quarantine is carried out so that if there is a new variant, it does not spread to other places. In addition, so that residents are really guarded so they don't get sick or get infected with COVID-19.

"In Kudus, we learned that the quarantine in the regency area is indeed needed in areas where the prevalence is quite high, so that there is an increase in health services and cannot be covered," he said.

Yunis said the current handling of COVID-19 should not be like firefighters, if there is a fire then immediately try to extinguish it, because what is being faced is an invisible virus. So, there must be appropriate mitigation by considering various indicators including those related to surveillance, contact tracing and testing.

"Surveillance, contact tracing, and testing are increased, that is the key, but handling and countermeasures must be carried out," he said.