"The coronavirus pandemic is a war. That is why we are here to work with the TNI commander and National Police chief to fight this war," Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin stated in Cilangkap, East Jakarta, on Tuesday.
The objective of this fight against the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic must be clear, specifically to curb Indonesia's infection rate, he notified journalists after attending a roll-call at the TNI headquarters, Sadikin remarked.
The roll-call was organized to reflect the preparedness of vaccinators and contact tracers that would be involved in Indonesia's national vaccination program and contact-tracing efforts at the grassroots level.
"Our strategy is how to develop solid intelligence capability to enable us to identify where and who will be the target group to join the COVID-19 testing and contact tracing," he explained.
The vaccination and contact tracing programs could be conducted in all community units (RW), neighborhood units (RT), villages, districts, and cities in Indonesia owing to the TNI and police's solid networks until the grassroots level, he pointed out.
In addition to working with the TNI and police, collaborating with communities is also the key to reducing the COVID-19 infection rate as the objective of this "war", he affirmed.
Over the past three weeks, the TNI and police have deepened their involvement in mask-wearing campaigns in various cities and towns.
On February 1, the 181/PVT resort military command and 1802/Sorong district military command had launched an eight-day mask-wearing campaign in Sorong City, West Papua.
Several army personnel from the resort and district military commands were dispatched to the city's main road section to distribute one thousand face masks to locals that were venturing outdoors.
The army personnel helped the residents to wear the donated face masks to remind them of the importance of consistently practicing the government's health protocols amid a spike in new confirmed COVID-19 cases in West Papua Province.
In order to follow up on President Joko Widodo's order to both the military commander and national police chief, the Papua police headquarters in Jayapura, Papua Province, also conducted the mask-wearing campaign on January 29, 2021.
Head of the Papua Police Headquarters' Protocol Bureau Sen. Coms. Jeremias Rontini distributed face masks to Jayapura residents venturing outdoors on that day to bring to their collective consciousness the ongoing risks of COVID-19 there.
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EDITED BY INE
Translator: Syaiful H, Rahmad Nasution
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
Copyright © ANTARA 2021
