TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Coalition of Health Professional Societies and Associations (KoMPAK) highlighted the government’s inconsistency in prioritizing health issues in handling the Covid-19 pandemic. The coalition said Indonesia has been fighting against the virus for 1.5 years, but the current condition shows that the pandemic has not been contained yet.

“The government seems to be still inconsistent in prioritizing health issues as the focus of the Covid-19 pandemic handling,” said KoMPAK in its statement read by the General Chairperson of the Indonesian Midwives Association (IBI) Emi Nurjasmi on Wednesday, August 18.

Emi underlined that KoMPAK is concerned about the current condition and the pandemic handling, one of which is the high number of confirmed cases and the death numbers among doctors and health workers.

In detail, 640 doctors, 98 dentists, 637 nurses, 377 midwives, 59 pharmacists, 34 nutritionists, 13 public health experts, and 33 laboratory technologists have died related to the disease. “While human resources are the key to the resilience of the health system in dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic,” Emi remarked.

Additionally, the vaccination rate is still low. The government targeted administering vaccines to 208 million people. As of August 17, only 26.4 percent of them have received their first dose and 14 percent have received the second dose.

KoMPAK also highlighted that the government has not yet optimized in carrying out testing, tracing, and treatment. “The Covid-19 test in Indonesia is still considered too pricey compared to other countries. The implementation of tracing is also still far from the target set by WHO,” Emi explained.

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BUDIARTI UTAMI PUTRI