Not All WHO Recommendations Are Followed By The Task Force For The Acceleration Of Handling COVID-19

Chairperson of the Task Force for the Acceleration of Handling COVID-19 Doni Monardo (Photo: Public Relations of BNPB)

JAKARTA - Chairman of the COVID-19 Handling Acceleration Group, Doni Monardo, said that not all recommendations from the World Health Organization (WHO) were immediately followed by his party. This is because the recommendation does not necessarily match the conditions in Indonesia.

So, before implementing the recommendations of the world health organization, the Task Force for the Acceleration of COVID-19 always conducts a study first.

"We need to review the notification from WHO in accordance with the conditions in our country. If we follow it carefully, the impact will be more infections," said Doni after holding a closed meeting at the Merdeka Palace, Monday, June 29.

Doni also stated that currently, the Task Force was conducting a study on the new WHO appeal which said that patients who recovered from COVID-19 did not need to be tested twice to ensure their recovery.

It is known, so far, patients who tested negative had already undergone the test twice. This aims to test the results of existing tests. If both test results are negative, then the patient is declared cured.

Returning to the matter of WHO's recommendation, the Head of the National Disaster Management Agency assessed that this recommendation is being studied further. This is deemed necessary, considering that all this time the recommendations of the organization have fluctuated.

One of them is about people without symptoms (OTG) who are said to have a small risk of transmission. He then explained that some time ago the WHO had stated that people without symptoms had a small risk of transmission. This was then discussed by the COVID-19 Task Force.

"It turns out that it is true that it is being rectified again by WHO. WHO keeps changing," he said.

So, reflecting on this incident, the Task Force for the Acceleration of Handling COVID-19 did not want to immediately follow WHO's recommendations without further study.

It is known, some time ago WHO published interim guidelines regarding the clinical management of COVID-19. The organization says that negative COVID-19 patients can be excluded without retesting as has been done so far.

However, each country is free to follow this new guideline or follow the old method, namely implementing the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method twice before declaring the patient free of COVID-19.