Eri Cahyadi, Mayor Of Surabaya, Prepares Independent Isolation Places To The Village Level

SURABAYA - Surabaya Mayor Eri Cahyadi has prepared a village-level self-isolation place for residents exposed to COVID-19 in the City of Surabaya, East Java. This effort is made to prevent the existence of family clusters.

Eri Cahyadi said that his party had asked all village heads to prepare a place for special isolation for residents who were exposed to COVID-19 in each village. "This isolation room can take advantage of strategic places such as fields or meeting buildings which will later be adapted to needs", he said Thursday, July 15.

Eri said that the establishment of isolation places in each village is expected to prevent the occurrence of family clusters. So, he continued, if in the family there is one person who is positive, then they can carry out isolation to the place provided.

He considered that when one positive person self-isolated at home, this would certainly make it difficult for the public health centers to carry out surveillance. Moreover, if the condition of the house is not suitable, it is more likely that it can actually cause transmission in the family.

"If (isolation) in their own homes is difficult to monitor, so what appears now is a family cluster. One (person) is reactive or positive, after that, they do not want to be separated from self-isolation, and infecting their other family members", he said.

According to him, sometimes from the family itself, there are also those who do not want to be directed to self-isolate in a special place provided. Therefore, Mayor Eri hopes that the neighborhood management can assist in approaching or providing understanding to each of its citizens. "We hope that the neighborhood can also approach it", he said.

For Eri, this approach is important so that the residents who do the isolation are pure of their own will and not because of coercion. Because, after all, the psychological condition of residents who are self-isolating will definitely have an effect. "So we have to first convey to their family to explain. Even if they are forced, they're not even sane (recovered), because this psychological effect has a big impact", he said.

The former Head of the Surabaya City Development Planning Agency (Bappeko) also explained that his party also continued to intensify tracing to close contacts. For him, one of the efforts to break the chain of the COVID-19 pandemic is to increase tracing. "If we trace it a little, it doesn't seem to increase. That's why we go all-out for tracing, one of these transmissions has been cut off from the tracing", he said as reported by Antara.

In addition to these efforts, Mayor Eri also hopes that the implementation of the Emergency Community Activity Restrictions (PPKM), which starts on July 12-20, 2021, can further reduce COVID-19 cases in Surabaya.

He also admitted that he continued to pursue herd immunity or the communal immunity of Surabaya residents could reach 70 percent. "Our hope is that until July 20, 2021, COVID-19 in Surabaya can be sloping", he said after explaining the preparation for self-isolation in Surabaya.