IDI: Protest Against Omnibus Law Potentially Raises COVID-19 Cases

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Indonesian Medical Association (IDI) Mitigation Team argued that the recent series of demonstrations against the Omnibus Law on Job Creation has the potential to create new COVID-19 infection clusters and trigger a spike in positive cases.

The mitigation team chairperson M Adib Khumaidi said the protest was attended by thousands of people and most of them neglected the health protocols against the coronavirus disease as they did not maintain physical distance and wear face masks.

“Many chants and shouts voiced by protesters during the rally certainly produce droplets and aerosols that potentially transmit viruses, particularly Covid,” said Adib in his statement on Friday, October 9.

Moreover, there were many possibilities that protesters came from different regions. “If they are infected, they can spread the virus when they return to their communities,” he added.

According to Adib, it was not the right of health workers to judge why people joined the demonstration amid the ongoing pandemic.

“In this case, we explain our concern from a medical point of view and based on science that an event, especially demonstration, has a higher risk [of virus transmission] than other activities. It is predicted there will be a spike in cases within the next one to two weeks,” Adib explained.

Health workers and medical facilities have been overwhelmed by the growing number of patients. During the first week of October alone, Adib said, 5 doctors died from the disease.

“So a total of 132 doctors died due to COVID-19. They are 68 general practitioners (4 of them were professors), 62 specialist doctors (5 of them were professors), and 2 doctor residents,” Adib said.

Read: Anies Baswedan Worried New COVID-19 Cluster to Emerge from Omnibus Law Protest

ANTARA