VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan revealed the upstream to downstream strategies in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, including building a quarantine center and patient care management.

Luhut, who is also Deputy Chair of the Policy Committee for Control of COVID-19 and National Economic Recovery (KPC PEN) in a written statement in Jakarta, Tuesday, explained two upstream strategies- behavior change campaign by the government and various stakeholders and early detection of the spread of COVID-19 and increased tracing and isolation.

The second step is to build quarantine and isolation centers for asymptomatic and mild COVID-19 patients (OTG) in cities with the highest cases. This location will still provide facilities according to the patient's needs, such as medical equipment and medicine.

"At this (downstream) stage, we fix the management of COVID-19 patient care to increase the recovery rate and decrease the mortality rate," he said.

Luhut explained that the Ministry of Health had made a Standard Protocol to treat COVID-19 Patients which contained a standard reference for handling COVID-19 patients from mild, moderate, to severe degrees. The guidebook also includes the tools and drugs that must be given to COVID-19 patients.

"These drugs mainly come from domestic production," he added.

Luhut confirmed that the Indonesian people would be able to immediately obtain the COVID-19 vaccine which is expected to enter the country from November 2020 to December 2021.

Luhut visited the Central Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) Emergency Warehouse on Tuesday accompanied by PMI Chairman Jusuf Kalla.

The warehouse functions to store logistics owned by PMI in its efforts to handle COVID-19. The activity was also attended by Ginanjar Kartasasmita as Deputy Chairman of PMI, Septian Hario Seto as Deputy for Investment and Mining Coordination at the Coordinating Ministry for Maritime and Investment, and several representatives of the Central PMI.

Luhut was given the honor to participate in releasing the PMI disinfectant spraying fleet, namely 45 Gunners who will spray the main roads of Greater Jakarta, 200 minivans, and 160 three-wheeled vehicles, and 1000 sprayers carrying disinfectants that can spray disinfectants in alleys and narrow roads in Jabodetabek area.

PMI itself has initiated spraying activities using gunner tanks which were carried out in 10 Provincial PMIs in 53 districts/cities. In addition, PMI also sprayed disinfectants at public facilities in 34 Provincial PMIs in 382 districts/cities.

"The beneficiaries of this activity are more than 51 million people, 20,474,913 people for gunner tanks and 31,005,056 people for spraying in public facilities," Jusuf Kalla said. (Antaranews)