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Idul Fitri 'mudik' travelers to undergo quarantine before departure: Surakarta mayor
To help prevent the spread of COVID-19, the Surakarta administration in Central Java is urging its citizens to refrain from returning to their home towns unless they quarantine themselves for 14 days before they depart.
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A staff member sprays disinfectant inside the Soelastri Dental Hospital in Surakarta, Central Java on March 20. (JP/Fauzan)
To help prevent the spread of COVID-19, the Surakarta administration in Central Java is urging its citizens to refrain from returning to their home towns unless they quarantine themselves for 14 days before they depart.
“I warn you again, do not return to your home town. If they ignore this warning, I will put them under quarantine before they leave for their home town,” Surakarta Mayor FX Hadi “Rudy” Rudyatmo said on Tuesday.
Rudy added that his administration was prepared to turn three old buildings into quarantine centers, namely Ndalem Joyokusuman, Ndalem Priyosuhartan and Graha Wisata Niaga.
The two first mentioned buildings are for people under monitoring (ODP) while Wisata Niaga is for people who wished to return to their hometown during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We will conduct a health screening every day. They are allowed to go home if they are in a healthy condition, or go to the hospital if they are patients under surveillance."
Aside from limiting the number of people who contract COVID-19, Rudy also said the quarantine had been implemented because the public was worried about travelers from cities with numerous disease cases, such as Greater Jakarta.
“Hopefully this policy will make them think twice before returning to their home towns,” Rudy said.
The head of the COVID-19 advanced management task force in Surakarta, Ahyani, said his team is collaborating with the airports, train stations and bus terminals to detect the coronavirus among people who use public transportation to return to their home towns, while the neighborhood unit heads (RT) and district officers would attempt to detect those who use their personal vehicles to return.
“We already coordinated with the officers in each area. We asked them to report them to us if they spotted travelers from Surakarta,” Ahyani said.
As of Wednesday, referral hospitals in Surakarta have recorded 130 people under monitoring and 39 patients under surveillance, all of whom traveled from outside of the city.
Meanwhile, the local data revealed that there have been seven COVID-19 patients, three of which are from Surakarta while the other four are from outside of the city. The number of people under monitoring also increased to 232 from 219, while the number of patients under surveillance has risen to 29, of whom 14 recovered while six died.
“We cannot afford to lock down the area. Surakarta is not big, but we have plenty of ways to get into the city because we are surrounded by five regencies. We obtain our food from the surrounding areas,” Alyani said. (dpk)
