UNS — The spokesperson for Covid-19 Taskforce Universitas Sebelas Maret (UNS) Surakarta Hospital, dr. Tonang Dwi Ardyanto stated that Indonesia is actually in the third wave of Covid-19. This condition can be observed from the skyrocketing Covid-19 cases. The healthcare system is overwhelmed with the Covid-19 patients and many healthcare workers infected by SARS-CoV-2 and succumbed to the infection.
“We once became the highest and largest in Asia, but now we are slowly decreasing. This position shows that we are actually in the third wave, but we didn’t really feel the first wave,” dr. Tonang Dwi Ardyanto stated in Wedangan Ikatan Keluarga Alumni (IKA) UNS, Wednesday evening (21/7/2021).
Based on the facts in the field, dr. Tonang also stated that currently, the emergency unit in several hospitals has a long patient queue. For example, in UNS Hospital, the line could reach 20-25 people. “In RSUD Moewardi, it could reach 60 people. Some wait in a tent, some in the hallway. Patients are waiting for a room. This is a condition that we never thought,” dr. Tonang stated.
dr. Tonang stated that if the government wants to loosen the Community Activities Restriction Policy (PPKM), they need to pay attention to the potential of another spike in Covid-19 cases similar to what happened in the UK, Malaysia, India, and even Singapore that is considered as a country that successfully handle the Covid-19 pandemic. In the discussion, dr. Tonang gave an example of the Covid-19 Delta variant that spread from India, which drastically increases infection cases in the UK and Malaysia, even higher than in Indonesia. However, the number of death cases caused by Covid-19 in Indonesia is higher than in Malaysia and the UK.
“Actually, we aren’t as high as Malaysia and the UK, but in terms of death, we need to be aware that we are higher than Malaysia, even though the cases in Malaysia are many times than us,” he explained.
Learning from Other Countries
dr. Tonang asked the Indonesian government to learn from other countries in making decisions regarding community activities restriction and vaccination due to Covid-19. He encouraged the Ministry of Health to intensify Covid-19 testing until 15 times from the suggested level by the World Health Organization (WHO). This policy was taken by India when the Delta variant spread for the first time in the country. “Currently, we are still high. With antigen, we reached 29.1 percent, with PCR 38.6 percent. Not long ago, we reached 47.6 percent. Thus, our position is not stable yet,” dr. Tonang said.
He added that the government should reconsider PPKM loosening because the number of communities receiving the first Covid-19 shot is lower than the targeted percentage. For example, in the UK, Boris Johnson administration took the policy to loosen the lockdown after 88 percent of their population has received the first shot of the Covid-19 vaccine, and around 60 percent of the population has received their second shot.
“This is a valuable lesson for us that reopening after the situation is deemed feasible (the cases increase) could still occur, and our vaccination coverage has not reached that stage (red: reaching the target),” he explained.
Therefore, dr. Tonang also encourages the government to increase the coverage of Covid-19 vaccination for the people because the effect of Covid-19 vaccination will be felt after vaccination reached 40%.
“Thus, we hope that we could feel the effect of vaccination. This does not mean that the pandemic is over, but the number of cases is lower than the recovered. For example, in Chile, the Covid-19 vaccine was administered to the elderly. As a result, the positive case shifted to adolescents, then to children. That is why children and adolescence also need to get vaccinated,” dr. Tonang concluded. Humas UNS
Reporter: Yefta Christopherus AS
Editor: Dwi Hastuti