Anies Baswedan Prepares Screening to Anticipate COVID-19 Transmission

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan organized Friday a meeting of the Jakarta Regional Leadership Communication Forum (Forkopimda) to anticipate the Eid al-Fitr return traffic.

The meeting, organized at the Jakarta City Hall, involved Jakarta Police Chief Insp. Gen. Fadil Imran and Jakarta Regional Military Commander Maj. Gen. Dudung Abdurachman.

“This morning we held a coordination meeting to anticipate the surge in Eid return traffic after Eid holidays,” Anies said after the meeting on Friday, May 14, 2021.

Anies said the meeting concluded there were two measures to avert increased transmission of COVID-19 after the holidays. The first is the tightened monitoring of people entering the capital by conducting screening at entry points to Jakarta—including random screening of private vehicles.

“As for public, air, sea transports and trains, random screening with antigen tests were already carried out prior to departures, so we can better detect the people entering Jakarta who have symptoms or can potentially transmit COVID-19,” he said.

The second measure is collecting the data of people entering the capital, which is carried out by officials of neighborhood units (RT), community units (RW), subdistrict offices, and subdistrict supervisory non-commissioned officers (Babinsa). These personnel will hold antigen tests for newcomers and Jakarta residents who just return from their hometowns.

“So, there are two layers of screening, the first is before the arrival and the second is after they arrive at home,” he said.

Anies Baswedan added there would be follow-up meetings involving RT, RW, subdistrict and district heads to anticipate the possible transmission of COVID-19 after Eid holidays.

Read: One Million People Enter and Exit Jakarta Before Mudik Ban

M YUSUF MANURUNG