Cases Of COVID-19 Following, Experts Urge The Government To Take More Aggressive Policies

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JAKARTA - Advisory Board of the COVID-19 Task Force for the Executive Board of the Indonesian Doctors Association (PB IDI) Prof. Dr. Zubairi Djoerban appealed to the government to take a more aggressive policy to ensure that the public gets a booster.

"Indonesia must be careful and be alert to the increase in Covid-19 cases and deaths, going forward. More aggressive policies are needed to ensure that the community, especially the elderly, get a booster. Whatever the variant, the key is still masks, vaccinations, and zero covid strategy," continued the founder of the Lupus Indonesia Foundation (YLI) via the Twitter account @ProfesorZubairi, quoted Friday, November 25.

Previously, global health security and resilience researcher Dicky Budiman assessed that the government was too ignorant about the ongoing OVID-19 mutation. This makes COVID-19 cases increase again to 5,000 cases per day.

"If you ignore it clearly, you can see from communication that is too optimistic but less alert. Including the lack of availability of booster vaccines. The government must strictly implement health protocols in the community. The third dose of vaccination rate or booster vaccine must also continue to be accelerated," said Dicky.

As for preventing transmission, Dicky appealed to the public to implement clean and healthy living behavior, wash hands, wear masks, and maintain distance. Then, he considered, arrangements to work from home (WFH) and work from the office (WFO) needed to be done. The rest is the responsibility of the government, including early detection and inserting vaccines.

As is known, COVID-19 cases have increased again since October 2022 due to the Omicron XBB, XBB.1, and BQ.1 subvariants. After several months of sloping, recently, daily cases of COVID-19 in the country have jumped again through 5,000, even 8,000 cases.

The latest data from the COVID-19 Task Force released on Thursday, November 24, noted that there were an additional 7,110 cases of the corona virus in a day. In the same period, there were 41 cases of death and 7,669 patients recovered.

The Indonesian Minister of Health, Budi Gunadi Sadikin, even estimates that the increase in COVID-19 cases in Indonesia will peak in the near future after slowly rising again since October 25.

"Now the COVID-19 cases are higher, already above 60 percent. So I think, it will definitely reach the peak soon," said Budi Gunadi Sadikin after the Indonesian press conference Calling Specialist Doctors at the Indonesian Ministry of Health Building, Friday, November 18.

Responding to this, Budi appealed to the public to always wear masks, both indoors and when crowding. He also reminded residents to immediately vaccinate the third dose or booster vaccination.