Discipline Keeping Distance With Surrounding People – When a corona outbreak (Covid-19) is rampant, there are only two options to stem it: closing the area affected by the plague (lockdown) or reducing interaction between residents of the country (social distancing). Indonesia needs to learn quickly from the experience of other countries that have implemented both war strategies against Covid-19.
The country implementing lockdown, among others, is China. The Chinese government first shut down Wuhan City when a corona outbreak broke out in the capital of Hubei Province, which has a population of around 11 million. After that, China closed 48 other cities from sea, land and air. Public transportation stops completely to limit human movement. All shops and factories were closed.
China has so far recorded 80,880 people infected with corona and 3,213 of them died. The economy of the world giant country is almost at a standstill. After all, China succeeded in reducing the number of new corona victims when in many other countries cases continued to increase. Therefore, the Chinese-style lockdown recipe is now imitated by European countries, such as Italy, Denmark, and Ireland.
Another alternative against corona is to reduce the amount of activity outside the home and the interaction of fellow citizens of the country. The most successful in implementing the “social distance” stance is South Korea, although the State of Ginseng recorded 8,236 positive cases of corona and 75 deaths. Google Indonesia
The key, while implementing a social distancing strategy, South Korea also conducts mass checks for free of its citizens. The local government mobilized all personnel and health facilities, so that they could process around 15 thousand specimen test results every day. The community also has access to know the travel history of infected patients. The total war finally reduced the number of new corona cases from 600-800 cases per day at the end of February to 100-200 cases per day since early March.
The Indonesian government seems to prefer social distancing options, not lockdowns. This was read from President Joko Widodo’s speech calling on the community to study, work and worship from home to minimize transmission.
The problem is that the Indonesian government has not shown such drastic steps as South Korea. There is no mass checkup yet for free. In fact, for paid checks even people have to queue for hours. When the awareness of the community to check themselves strengthened, referral hospitals generally still faced constraints of limited staff and facilities.
The application of social distancing in Indonesia has also been hampered by the lack of discipline in the majority of the population. When the government recommends that people reduce interaction, on public transport and crowded centers, such as markets, people are still crowded. In fact, without mutual discipline, a strategy to keep distance in the fight against corona will most likely be in vain.
Another problem that needs to be addressed is the poor coordination between the central government and the regions. When Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan reduced the number and frequency of public transportation trips, President Jokowi instead quipped a policy that led to the buildup of prospective passengers. Anies’s policy may be underdone. But the President’s open satire only shows that the two leaders cannot coordinate or, perhaps, compete instead.