UNS – Households as the core economy have an important role in overcoming the Covid-19 Pandemic. A faculty member of the Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB) Universitas Sebelas Maret (UNS) Surakarta, Nurul Istiqomah, SE, M.Si., states that basically, the main objective undertaken by core economy is to survive and prosper. Households will take action to protect their family members by buying masks and hand sanitizers when the initial pandemic occurs, this leads to soaring masks and hand sanitizers price.
Panic buying in the community causing more demand than supply, thereby pushing up prices. “We’ve been through the stage where masks and hand sanitizers are hard to find, while many are sold at an extremely high price. The government’s recommendation to use a cloth mask that can be washed for re-use is one of the ways out. This is where the role of the family as the core economy strives to provide service to its members takes place. They made their own cloth mask and hand sanitizers or buy it from MSEs around them, thus they are useful for protecting the health of their family members and preventing the exposure to Covid-19, as well as revive a small business community that experienced sluggishness,” reveals Nurul, Tuesday (1/7/2020).
What else can households do, to participate in facing the of Covid-19? Nurul adds that the society can adhere to the recommendation given by the government to keep working, studying, and praying from home, and not going back to hometown on Eid this year.
Family as the core economy has an important role during the new normal implementation to avoid a further economic downturn. New normal aims to recover the economic activity and increase community purchasing power, thus reducing the Government spending in Social Safety Network and budget deficits can be controlled.
“The role of the household is important to maintain and improve the awareness and introspection for its core family because the number of people with Covid-19 has not decreased significantly. When the New normal is implemented, the economic condition will improve, but the number of COVID-19 patients is increasing,” she added.
Therefore, as the core economics actor in Indonesia, the role of the household in facing the COVID-19 pandemic is to maintain the distribution of Covid-19 from getting higher by keeping staying at home if possible but remains productive. Otherwise, if someone has to leave their house to work, then they must comply with the Health protocol that has been implemented.
“We know that when there is a high level of fear, the spread of Covid-19 tends to be lower than it is at present when many people are bored at home and the level of fear has dropped dramatically,” Nurul concluded. Humas UNS/Dwi
