Although Most Of The Islands In Bintan Kepri Are In The COVID Green Zone, Task Force Asks Residents To Stay Alert

Officers buried the body of COVID-19 patient in Kelurahan Kawal, Bintan Regency, Riau Islands (ANTARA)

RIAU - The Bintan Regency COVID-19 Task Force, Riau Islands (Kepri) stated that most of the islands in the area were green zones or areas with a low risk of COVID-19 transmission.

A member of the Bintan COVID-19 Task Force, Gama AF Isnaeni, said the number of active cases in Bintan based on data as of Monday, August 30, 2021, was only 76 people. Most of the patients are in densely populated areas.

"The islands in Bintan are generally free of COVID-19, but we still have to be vigilant, especially on islands with fairly high shipping mobility," Gama said in Bintan, Antara, Tuesday, August 31.

The head of the Bintan Health Office added that islands with fairly high shipping mobility, such as Tambelan Island. Recently, a number of Tambelan residents were confirmed to have COVID-19, which is suspected to have been infected by ship passengers.

In addition, in the port area, which is managed by Pertamina in Tanjunguban, there are also those who have contracted COVID-19.

Open shipping lanes encourage the mobility of residents from various regions to enter islands and business areas so that residents and workers must still obey health protocols so as not to contract COVID-19.

"Residents living on islands must still apply health protocols even though there are zero COVID-19 cases in the area," he urged.

Gama said that residents needed to carry out the appeal because tracing of people who were in close contact with COVID-19 patients was relatively low. One of the reasons is that officers find it difficult to trace because there are people who are in close contact with COVID-19 patients, "hidden".

This condition causes swab tests for people who have close contact with COVID-19 patients are also low.

"What we are worried about is that the person is in contact with other people, causing the potential active cases to increase," he said.

Currently, he said, Bintan was designated as a Yellow Zone. The COVID-19 Handling Task Force is trying to reduce the status to a Green Zone.

"Of course this must be supported by all elements of society so that it can be achieved immediately," he said.