Apart from the government's efforts, public awareness is also important to reduce new cases

The outbreak of the Covid-19 virus since the beginning of 2020, has changed people’s way of life and claimed the lives of thousands of victims around the world, including Indonesia. Based on the official website of Indonesia's Covid-19 Task Force, up till January 15, 2021, as many as 882,418 people have tested positive, 718,696 people have been declared cured, and 25,484 people have died due to Covid-19.

As a result of its rapid spread, the Indonesian government took actions to prevent its spread by implementing various regulations, such as health protocols, physical distancing, work from home (WFH), large-scale social restrictions (PSBB), rapid tests, public activity restriction enforcement (PKKM), as well as vaccination. In an effort to break the chain of spreading Covid-19, public awareness of complying with health protocols was a major factor, prior to the Covid-19 vaccine. However, if there is no public awareness to comply with the regulations that have been imposed by the government, new cases will continue to emerge every day.

According to Dicky Budiman, a Griffith University Australia’s researcher of Global Health Security & Pandemic, the 2020 regional elections last December gave rise to the Covid-19 cluster, which was marked by thousands of health protocol violations previously discovered by Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu). This institution noted that around 1,172 officers were found still on duty at the polling stations even though they were tested to be positive for Covid-19. It showed that people seem unconcerned with their surroundings.

In addition, positive cases of Covid-19 in Bali have increased in recent days. People who want to go on vacation with these prone conditions are at risk for contracting or transmitting the virus. I Wayan Koster, Governor of Bali, said that he already suspected that the positive cases in Bali would increase after the year-end holidays since a large number of tourists will be visiting Bali and spending time there. Furthermore, he considered the cases in the last two days were higher than the initial cases of Covid-19 in March 2020. Although there are no travel restrictions, people should be aware of traveling when only it is really necessary within the recent situation.

Another event that creates crowds and becomes a new cluster for the transmission of the virus is wedding receptions. If the event is held without heeding health protocols, the chances of spreading the virus will be even greater. Even though people are allowed to hold wedding receptions, they must adhere to health protocols. In order to make the public obey the regulations, the government is also expected to be firm in giving sanctions to the violators.

What the government has done only contributes 30% of the success in reducing the chain of Covid-19 spread, the remaining 70% lies in public compliance and discipline. Even with the discipline of wearing masks, maintaining distance, and washing hands can make the spread of Covid-19 decrease. However, if there are people who are not fully aware of those, the impact is still there, because having one person violating it will have an impact on several people around them. If people don't care and think that there is no more virus lurking around them, when will this pandemic be over?


By: Nurul Hana Prastiwi (B0318027)

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