Elimination Of Christmas And New Year Holiday Is Considered Good To Prevent The Third Wave Of COVID-19

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JAKARTA - The government has abolished the joint leave of December 24, 2021, in accordance with the Joint Decree (SKB) of the Minister of Religion, Minister of Manpower, Minister of Administrative Reform and Bureaucratic Reform of the Three Ministers' SKB Number 712 of 2021, Number 1 of 2021, and Number 3 of 2021 concerning National Day National holidays and Joint Leave 2021.

Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture (Menko PMK) Muhadjir Effendy, explained that the policy of eliminating Christmas and New Year's leave was carried out to limit the more massive mobilization or movement of people ahead of the year-end holidays.

This was conveyed at the Coordination Meeting for Transportation Preparation for Christmas 2021 and New Year 2022, together with Minister of Transportation Budi Karya Sumadi, representatives of Dirlantas throughout Indonesia, Dishub throughout Indonesia, the COVID-19 Task Force, and related stakeholders, which were held online and offline, on Tuesday, 26 October.

"We are trying to suppress as little as possible those who will travel. And this has been given a barrier fence. Starting from the absence of joint leave holidays. Then we will ban them from taking leave," said Muhadjir.

According to him, the policy requires wider socialization to the community. Therefore, it needs to be done jointly by the police, the transportation service, and also the mass media. This needs to be done so that the community is more understanding of the existing situation and is not desperate to violate it.

"I ask that later there will be a large-scale campaign to urge people not to travel. Not to return to their hometown, or to travel for non-primary purposes," he said.

Responding to the government's decision, the Deputy Chair of Commission IX of the DPR from the Golkar faction, Melkiades Laka Lena, agreed with the abolition of this year's Christmas and New Year's joint leave. According to him, during a pandemic, systematic steps are needed.

"The pandemic is still ongoing, and the potential for a third wave could occur if there are no serious and systematic preventive measures, including the policy of removing collective leave during the Christmas and New Year holidays," said Melki, Wednesday, October 27.

The Golkar politician considered that there might be bad effects from the regulation. However, he said, it was for the health of the Indonesian people.

"In terms of health, prevention is better than cure. This policy prevents people from getting COVID-19," said Melki.

Meanwhile, an epidemiologist from Australia's Griffith University, Dicky Budiman, said the policies taken by the government would be enough to help prevent a spike in cases.

However, Dicky believes that there is a need for other policies so that the prevention can be more effective.

"I think it's a step that will be quite helpful, yes. But speaking of effectiveness, of course, it cannot stand alone, there must be policies in other sectors that support each other," said Dicky, Wednesday, October 27.

Dicky assessed that the policies taken by the government must be supported by policies in each office. For example, the office provides incentives when its employees do not leave the area. In addition, a monitoring system is also important to do so that employees do not steal the opportunity to travel.

In addition, Dicky explained that there are five things that can be done in an effort to prevent the third wave.

"First, public immunity must be pursued by vaccination. Second, booster vaccines for vulnerable groups such as health workers and comorbid patients," explained Dicky.

The third factor is strengthening 3T (testing, tracing, treatment). Dicky stressed the importance of testing for people who travel. Meanwhile, the fourth factor is the strengthening of 5M.

"Not traveling and not having a vacation but not wearing a mask is the same thing. The fifth and last step is to strengthen genomic surveillance, which restricts entrances to monitor new variants," concluded Dicky.