VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Feb. 5 - The Indonesian government is formulating strategies to strengthen COVID-19 handling, deputy chief of the COVID-19 Handling and National Economic Recovery Committee (KPC-PEN), Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, has said.

The strategies include launching a massive campaign on health protocols, developing a central isolation facility, accelerating the vaccination program, and limiting mobility, he added.

“We have to improve the strategy on COVID-19 handling to increase public discipline,” Pandjaitan, who is also the Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment, said here during an online discussion on COVID-19 handling on Thursday.

The government, he said, has three primary targets in the fight against COVID-19 — reduce daily cases, lower mortality rate, and increase recovery rate.

The first strategy is encouraging change in public behavior through a massive health protocol campaign, and aggressive tracing and testing, the minister informed.

"We hope that dissemination of information and the campaign can be conducted massively involving various institutions, such as the Religious Affairs Ministry and the Education and Culture Ministry," he said.

The next strategy is developing a central isolation facility, Pandjaitan said.

"The use of Wisma Atlet in Greater Jakarta is the right policy, hence we can use it as an isolation center, reduce family clusters, and help overwhelmed hospitals," he stated.

The government is also encouraging provinces with the highest number of positive cases to provide a central isolation facility, he revealed.

"We will improve the management of medical treatment by ensuring adequate hospital capacity, medicines and health care equipment," he said.

Yet another strategy, he added, is accelerating the COVID-19 vaccination program, under which vaccines are being administered to medical workers, public service officers, vulnerable groups, and in priority regions with high positivity rates.

"Vaccination is still ongoing, we are targeting to reach 70 percent of herd immunity in 12 months," Pandjaitan stressed.

Reducing mobility is also crucial to control coronavirus transmission, he noted.

"Based on our experience, it will need mobility reduction of more than 30 percent to control the cases," he said.

Meanwhile, head of the Indonesian Epidemiology Association (PAEI), Hariadi Wibisono, said the source of most of the COVID-19 positive cases could not be detected.

"Therefore, we need to intensify the 3T moves — testing, tracing and treatment," he remarked.

The government should provide affordable and accessible COVID-19 testing and tracing that involves all elements of the society, he said. (Antaranews)