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Bandung Health Agency struggles to conduct contract tracing in army school cluster
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A Bandung Health Agency officer checks the body temperature of a driver as his truck enters the city on Jl. Pasteur in Bandung, West Java on April 22. (JP/Arya Dipa)
T
he Bandung Health Agency in West Java has said that it encountered difficulty in carrying out contact tracing at the Army’s Officer Candidate School (Secapa) cluster in the city.
"We’ve only received information about the number [of people who have been infected], but we could not enter the school [to confirm]," agency head Rita said on Tuesday as reported by kompas.com.
In response, army chief spokesman Brig. Gen. Nefra Firdaus told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday that he would look into the matter.
West Java recorded the highest spike with 962 new cases on July 9, accounting for most of Indonesia’s latest all-time high record of 2,657 new cases in a single day.
The national COVID-19 task force spokesperson, Achmad Yurianto, said the spike came after the finding of 1,262 new cases at the army school, 991 of which were students.
Authorities conducted mass PCR testing at the school after two students were diagnosed with COVID-19 as they sought medical attention for seemingly unrelated symptoms.
Rita said there was a high possibility that a lot of the students from the school had visited several places in Bandung before it was discovered as a cluster, so it was important to find out where they had gone.
Read also: West Java to fine residents who do not wear face masks in public
As a preventive measure, she said, the agency had set up checkpoints in seven community units (RW) around the school.
"We check the temperatures of people entering and leaving the areas," Rita said.
Separately, Nefra said on Wednesday that authorities had conducted a second round of PCR testing at the school.
"As of Wednesday, we recorded 27 new cases and 116 recoveries. So in total we only have 1,026 cases, a decrease of 281 [from the previous number], at the school," Nefra said in a statement.
He said the Indonesian Military had cooperated with Airlangga University in Surabaya, East Java and the State Intelligence Agency (BIN) to conduct clinical trials for COVID-19 patients at the school.
"A team of clinical trials for COVID-19 treatment from the three institutions is set to give a combination of multiple drugs and dosages for patients. The said trials will be conducted in accordance with the clinical trial guidelines from the Indonesian Food and Drug Monitoring Agency," Nefra said.
