Schools In Jakarta Are Back In Lockdown Due To COVID-19

SMPN 85 Jakarta must lock down for a few days/Photo: VOI

JAKARTA - The temporary closure of schools due to the findings of COVID-19 cases in Jakarta was again carried out amid an increase in global COVID-19 cases, after previously sloping down.

Now one school in Jakarta, namely SMPN 85 Pondok Labu, Cilandak, South Jakarta, will be locked down for the next few days.

Previously, the DKI Jakarta Provincial Government had temporarily closed schools in early 2022, starting from the application of face-to-face learning (PTM) with 100 percent capacity to 50 percent PTM.

It was noted that 706 schools were temporarily closed at that time. The school was closed due to the findings of COVID-19 cases in students, teachers, and education staff.

Currently, SMPN 85 is closed for 10 days from July 18 to 28, 2022. Cilandak sub-district head, Djaharuddin explained the chronology of the case findings at the school.

On Thursday, July 14, 2022, there was a report of a class VIII B student being confirmed positive for COVID-19. The student was still in school the day before. The local health center immediately conducted contact tracing.

"As a follow-up, class VIII B was closed for 5 days and tracing was carried out on Friday, July 15, 2022 at the Cilandak Sub-district Health Center. Tracing was carried out on 41 close contacts," Djaharuddin told reporters, Thursday, July 21.

Then, on Monday, July 18, 2022, another case of COVID-19 was found in class IX F students. However, Djaharuddin said this case had no contact with the previous case.

Furthermore, on Tuesday, July 19, 2022, there was a close contact from a COVID-19 case of a class IX F student who was also confirmed positive for the corona virus. Thus, there are 3 cases of COVID-19 recorded at SMPN 85.

"Because positive cases were found as a result of close contacts with index cases, school clusters and schools were closed for 10 days for spraying of disinfectant," explained Djaharuddin.