"In every pandemic, the strategy for us to be able to deal with it is to reduce the rate of transmission through four strategies recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO)," he said while making a presentation at a webinar on ‘Indonesian Health Resilience and Independence’ on Thursday.
The webinar was organized by the board of trustees of the University of Indonesia (MWA-UI) in collaboration with the Ministry of Research and Technology/Indonesian Research and Innovation Agency (Kemenristek/BRIN).
The four strategies recommended by the WHO include behavioral change, diagnostic strategies, vaccinations, and patient care, the minister informed.
The behavior change strategy involves enforcement of health protocols in the community, including washing hands, maintaining distance, and wearing masks, he said.
The next strategy is to set up a good diagnostic infrastructure to identify patients, he added.
"Unfortunately, this (diagnostic infrastructure) is a bit difficult to measure as we need a fairly sophisticated technology. Meanwhile, testing technology and quarantine mechanisms have existed since the Black Death era," he remarked.
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Furthermore, he also emphasized that the government has continued to expedite the vaccination program through the provision of service infrastructure.
"We have to build infrastructure so that (health services) can be fast," said Sadikin.
He said the strategies of behavior change, diagnosis, and vaccination are health defense systems, which are currently being applied to healthy people.
Meanwhile, the last strategy, which involves care, applies to people who have been exposed to the disease, he added.
The treatment strategy involves provision of health service facilities and infrastructure for patient recovery, he stated.
“We have prepared enough beds and expert doctors from all over the country," the minister said.
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Translator: Andi Firdaus, Katriana
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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