Anticipating The Surge In Omicron, Pontianak Prepares 24-Hour Health Officers

The Mayor of Pontianak, Edi Rusdi Kamtono. (Photo ANTARA/HO-Humas Pontianak)

PONTIANAK - The Pontianak City Government, West Kalimantan has alerted health workers for 24 hours in anticipation of a surge in cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 in the city.

"We are currently alerting health workers for 24 hours to monitor residents who are confirmed positive for COVID-19, both symptomatic and asymptomatic," said Pontianak Mayor Edi Rusdi Kamtono in Pontianak, quoted by Antara, Friday, February 4.

He explained, in this case, the key is actually implementing strict health protocols by the community, namely always wearing masks, diligently washing hands using soap with running water and maintaining a safe distance.

"For those with symptoms, we have prepared health facilities in the form of isolation rooms, medicines, and tracing the surrounding environment so that the spread of the virus does not spread," said Edi.

He added that his party in this case will continue to try to reduce the number of cases because it is feared that the peak will occur in February.

"For special policies, I think we have experience, such as the previous Delta variant, so now we are tightening and activating the COVID-19 Task Force officers for monitoring in the field," he said.

Meanwhile, the current hospital occupancy rate is still low because no COVID-19 patients have been treated.

In addition, according to him, the efforts made by the Pontianak City Government, namely by continuing to aggressively carry out COVID-19 vaccinations, have now reached more than 80 percent of the 400 thousand residents of Pontianak City.

As well as vaccinating children aged six to 11 years, which has now reached 13 percent of the approximately 65 thousand children targeted for COVID-19 vaccination in the City.