During The Pandemic, Surabaya COVID-19 Task Force Nets 24,000 Prokes Violators, Fines Reach Rp3.7 Billion

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SURABAYA - As many as 24 thousand violators of health protocols (prokes) were caught in a raid by the Surabaya City COVID-19 Task Force (Satgas) during the pandemic. Of that number, as many as 870 of them are places of business.

"To this day, there are 24 thousand prokes violators, both individuals and business places. Especially for business places that violate the health protocols as many as 870 business places," said the Coordinator of Law Enforcement and Discipline of the Surabaya City COVID-19 Handling Acceleration Task Force, Eddy Christijanto, in Surabaya, Wednesday, October 13.

Eddy explained that the thousands of prokes violators mostly ignored the importance of wearing masks. Then followed by residents, who carry out activities that can trigger the emergence of a crowd.

"Most of the violations are not wearing masks. They carry masks but they are not worn, but they are also not eating or drinking. Then the crowd, but the most dominating thing is that residents ignore the use of masks," he said.

Eddy ensured that violators of the prokes would still be subject to sanctions in the form of Tour Of Duty activities at COVID-19 burial graves, doing social work, administrative fines, and closing business premises.

"We continue to impose sanctions, both administrative fines and other fines. Then we will also close businesses that violate the process," he explained.

The head of the Surabaya City Satpol PP explained that from the administrative fines that had been imposed, funds collected up to Rp3.7 billion went directly into the regional treasury. Even so, Eddy still asked his staff to take a persuasive and humanist approach in enforcing the prokes.

"The administrative fines that we collect from the financial statements are almost Rp. 3.7 billion. Until now, we are still giving sanctions to residents who violate the prokes, but we are still doing it in a persuasive and humane way," he said.

As law enforcement officers, he continued, all staff have been asked to prioritize discipline and ethics. The hope is that by carrying out humanistic education, the citizens of Surabaya City can change their behavior for the better towards the implementation of health care programs.

"Our goal is to educate the public about changing behavior to get used to the implementation of this health protocol," he said.

Therefore, Eddy also asked the residents of Surabaya City not to be too euphoric with the decrease in the number of positive cases of Covid-19. Because, based on the Instruction of the Minister of Home Affairs, the City of Surabaya is still at PPKM Level 3.

"Citizens of Surabaya, please don't feel like dropping this level is finally euphoric and will cause you to be negligent with the health protocol. Even though the implementation of this program is very important to anticipate exposure to the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Don't be careless, let's keep the procedure," he said.