Pressing COVID-19 Death Rate, Government Reminds People To Pay More Attention To Comorbid Patients

Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hatarto (Photo: Public Relations)

JAKARTA - The Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Chair of the Committee for Handling COVID-19 and National Economic Recovery (KCPPEN), Airlangga Hartarto, said that Indonesia is currently preparing for pre and post herd immunity. Where the achievement of the post-COVID-19 pandemic will shift in the future to become endemic. "Of course, to deal with this, vaccination is still needed. The post-herd immunity vaccination strategy needs to be considered from now on. Our office is willing to continue to cooperate with Unair so that it can be prepared regarding the distribution mechanism or reduce vaccine imports in the future," said Airlangga in his remarks at the Airlangga University Surabaya COVID-19 Gebrak event, which was broadcast online, Friday, July 30. To control active cases, he continued, the government upstream reminded that 3 billion people from the community played an important role. . And the joint action movement to simultaneously tackle COVID-19 or the COVID-19 strike initiated by Airlangga University Surabaya really reminds the public that COVID-19 can only be prevented if there is community participation and discipline. In addition, he said, the implementation of testing, tracing and treatment must also be carried out. Based on WHO regulations, the positivity rate is less than 5 percent, where one person is tested per thousand residents. "However, because our positivity rate is above 15 percent, per thousand residents, at least 15 people will be tested," said Airlangga. "And of course in East Java it is hoped that minimum standards will be made. Based on the instructions of the Minister of Home Affairs, for example in Surabaya, a minimum of 6,254 tests are carried out per day. With a large number of tests, we can certainly capture higher active cases. But this is better because in time we will know very well how much of the population has been exposed to COVID-19," he continued. Regarding treatment, said Airlangga, this is the key to reducing the death rate. Because, according to him, many cases of death afflict the elderly and have comorbidities. Therefore, in handling the COVID-19 pandemic, comorbid patients need to be given more attention. Namely is tuberculosis, because it is a lung disease. Based on WHO data, Indonesia is number two in the world. "So of course the treatment of TB comorbidities needs to be a concern so that it does not become a major factor in death. Likewise diabetes, where Indonesia is number 6 in the world, so people need to be reminded that those with comorbidities must continue to be treated and given more attention," said Airlangga. Meanwhile, downstream for bed capacity in reactive Java has been pushed to 40 percent conversion, and centralized isolation is also being pushed. Where this centralized isolation is to deal with people who in terms of their place of residence do not allow for self-isolation. "And self-isolation, the availability of drugs, is the main factor that the government continues to pay attention to," said Airlangga.