Govt: Reschedule year-end holidays to prevent virus circulation

Beware, it’s Christmas: Customers shop for Christmas decorations at Asemka Market, West Jakarta, on Sunday. Vendors reported that their sales had dropped 50 percent this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (JP/Wendra Ajistyatama)

Government spokeswoman for COVID-19 handling and ambassador of new habit adaption Reisa Broto Asmoro said the upcoming Christmas and New Year holidays would be the proving ground for whether the Indonesian people could decide to put an end to the pandemic through preventive measures, such as maintaining health protocol discipline.

“Continue testing, tracing and treatment so we can maintain the public activity restrictions (PPKM) at level 1, or fully under control, and also speed up the vaccination drive to reach 70 percent of the population target by the end of this year,” Reisa told a press gathering on Friday. Reisa went on to say that Indonesia had recorded fewer than 400 cases per day in the past seven days, a death rate below 0.1 percent and a bed occupancy rate (BOR) at 3 percent. Therefore, she believed the people could adapt to number of regulations in Home Ministerial Instruction No. 62/2021 on COVID-19 handling and prevention during Christmas 2021 and New Year 2022. The minister’s latest instruction, Reisa added, stated that from Dec. 24 to Jan. 2, or during the Christmas and New Year holiday season, all administration levels from province, regency to city must make sure that the COVID-19 task force works at maximum capacity all the way down to the community level. The home ministerial instruction also asks the Regional Government Coordination Forum and other related stakeholders to tighten collaboration in voicing the prevention steps and health protocol discipline.

“For the workers, we have been asking to reschedule their home visit tradition during Christmas and New Year to make sure that the virus does not spread from cities to villages, as the potential for crowding on various modes of transportation is likely to trigger new clusters,” Reisa, who is also a general practitioner, said. She said it was proven that the impacts of the 2021 Idul Fitri holidays and last year’s Christmas and New Year holidays had caused surges in new infections. After Idul Fitri, daily cases jumped to 50,000, an increase of more than 1,000 percent from the previous month. As for the national holidays to celebrate the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad and Christmas 2020, the daily case rate had risen by 5,000, an increase of 100 percent from the previous month. Therefore, Reisa said, the home ministerial instruction prohibited paid leave for civil servants, the military and National Police personnel, as well as employees of state-owned companies and private companies during the Christmas and New Year period. “The instruction also asks all regional governments to cancel all cultural and sports events from Dec. 24, 2021 to Jan. 2, 2022, to close all city squares from Dec. 31 to Jan.1 and to ensure that street vendors at all crowded venues maintain distance,” she said.

The Public Order Agency, Community Protection Task Force, Regional Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) and firefighters have been asked to increase alertness and be proactively involved in preventing and handling public activities that might disturb public order. They have been asked to prevent and handle gatherings of people, crowding at public facilities (shopping malls and restaurants), tourist spots and houses of worship during the Christmas and New Year period. As for Christians celebrating Christmas, the government has asked churches to form a COVID-19 health protocol task force, which will coordinate with the regional COVID-19 task force to ensure the safety and security of the congregation during Christmas services.

“This includes providing the option to attend mass virtually, with a modified ceremony, so the church capacity does not exceed the allowed 50 percent,” she said. Reisa ensured that all related parties understood all the health protocols as this would be our second Christmas during the pandemic. On the other side, she also offered a reminder of the potential for natural disasters such as flooding and landslides, or hydrometeorological disasters as predicted by the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency.

“In the context of health or natural disasters, prevention and remaining fully alert are much better than curing and rehabilitating or reconstruction,” she said. Therefore, Reisa also asked people to prevent a third pandemic wave by maintaining health protocol discipline and getting vaccinated. “The WHO has explained that the function of a vaccine should not be measured only by its efficacy rate, but also by its ability to provide a memory for our cells to always fortify themselves or provide immunity whenever encountering the virus. So keep wearing your masks and get vaccinated.”

https://www.thejakartapost.com/adv/2021/11/28/govt-reschedule-year-end-holidays-to-prevent-virus-circulation.html

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