The long holiday at the end of October has finally arrived. Travelling during the long holidays is feared to have an impact on the increase in coronavirus cases.
The government and experts have advised the public to vacation at home, and apply health protocols when leaving the house.
The government has set a joint leave of absence on 28th and 30th October. The two dates of joint leave (cuti bersama) policy is regulated in Presidential Decree Number 17 of 2020.
There have been a number of messages conveyed welcoming this long holiday. One of the messages was conveyed by President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) who warned not to let long holidays have an impact on the increase in coronavirus cases in Indonesia.
“Today, we are talking about anticipating the spread of coronavirus in connection with the long holiday at the end of October 2020. Considering that we had the experience of a long holiday 1.5 months ago, there was a rather high increase,” said Jokowi.
Jokowi invited his ministers to develop a strategy so that this would not happen again. DKI Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan appealed to Jakarta’s residents to stay at home during long holidays to prevent the increase in the positive number of coronavirus in Jakarta after the long holiday.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Home Affairs, Tito Karnavian, suggested that residents clean their houses during the long holiday. Previously, Tito predicted that the public would take advantage of Monday-Tuesday and Saturday-Sunday for the long holiday.
“Community movement can cause transmission. Therefore, we need to be aware of this together so that holidays do not become a medium of transmission. There are several things we need to do together,” said Tito.
The government recommends that residents in the zones do not go on vacation or return to their hometowns.
“Living in red zone areas are prone to infection. It’s better to spend time in their respective places,” Tito added.
Furthermore, epidemiology expert from the Faculty of Public Health, University of Indonesia (FKM UI) Iwan Ariawan warned residents to stay at home during the long weekend. Iwan said that the increase in coronavirus cases usually occurs two weeks after a long holiday.
“The increase in cases occurs due to an increase in population movements during the holiday,” Iwan noted.
Iwan also said that population movement would affect coronavirus transmission if it is not accompanied by the implementation of health protocols, thus the positive cases will increase.
Source: DW