TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan in a written statement on Thursday said contact tracing was key to detecting the coronavirus.

“We can now better understand the importance of the contact tracing technique in handling COVID-19. Tracing is the key,” Luhut Pandjaitan wrote on July 29.

According to Luhut, who is also the coordinator of the emergency public activity restriction (emergency PPKM) in Java and Bali, the spread of the virus would be detected and handled quickly through contact tracing. However, he said there were possibilities that the number of positive cases could climb as time passed.

“I told the President that the number of infections could probably rise but it would be okay as the person would be ‘taken’ from their relatives and we prevent the person from infecting family members,” said the Minister.

Through this system, he added, those that wer exposed to COVID-19 could be immediately handled. The availability of centralized isolation centers that increased the number of hospitals' bed occupancy ratio (BOR) and oxygen supplies at oxygen centers also improved the situation, he explained.

However, Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan made it clear that the government would continue to be prepared for the worst case scenario in the future as thousands of isolation beds had been added across cities in Java and Bali along with additional oxygen ISO tanks to brace for potential oxygen shortages.

Read: Govt Expands Digital COVID-19 Tracing Using QR Codes

CAESAR AKBAR