Anticipating For School COVID-19 Clusters, DKI Conducts Periodic Antigen Tests

ILLUSTRATION/BETWEEN

JAKARTA - Head of the DKI Education Agency, Nahdiana, said that her party has a way to anticipate the emergence of COVID-19 clusters in schools that implement face-to-face learning (PTM), namely by conducting periodic antigen tests.

"The DKI Jakarta Provincial Education Office is also collaborating with the DKI Jakarta Provincial Health Office to conduct periodic antigen swab tests in schools that carry out limited PTM, to see the positivity rate in schools," said Nahdiana in her statement, Friday, September 24. .

Nahdiana said this anticipation was carried out because it did not rule out the possibility of finding cases of COVID-19 during the implementation of Limited PTM in schools.

This anticipation is made through standard emergency break procedures by tracing, testing and treatment. If a case is found, the school is temporarily closed for 3x24 hours for disinfection.

"We also hope for effective participation and collaboration between teachers, principals, school committees, and school supervisors, as well as parents and the community in implementing strict health protocols, as well as a clean and healthy lifestyle in the implementation of Limited PTM in schools, the successful implementation of Limited PTM in DKI Jakarta," said Nahdiana.

Her party continued, Nahdiana, had traced the data from the Director-General of Directorate General of Early Childhood Education, Primary Education and Secondary Education (PAUD Dikdasmen) Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology (Kemendikbudristek) regarding the findings of 25 school COVID-19 clusters in DKI Jakarta which were released on the Kemendikbudristek website.

Based on the search, it turns out that the data for the 25 COVID-19 clusters were taken from a survey conducted on school respondents. This cluster was not determined based on the results of the DKI Health Office's surveillance of positive cases of COVID-19.

"The survey was carried out for the period from January to September 2021, so it does not describe new cases after the Limited PTM started," said Nahdiana.

Nahdiana explained, of the 25 schools declared to be in the COVID-19 cluster, only 2 schools were included in the 610 schools participating in Limited PTM Phase 1, starting on August 30, 2021, namely Cindera Mata Indah Middle School and Yadika 2 Vocational High School Jakarta.

"Based on data in the field, since the start of Phase 1 Limited PTM, there have been no cases of COVID-19 in the school, either from students or educators and education staff," she said.

It is known, the findings of this cluster are recorded in real-time data belonging to the Ministry of Education and Technology on the school.data.kemdikbud.go.id page. This data was collected from a survey of 900 school respondents.

As a result, Kemendikbudristek noted that there were 25 clusters in PTM and 875 schools that did not have clusters in PTM. It was also noted that 227 educators and education staff were confirmed positive for COVID-19 and 241 students were confirmed positive for COVID-19.