However, amid the rising number of new cases, a survey conducted by Statistics Indonesia (BPS) from Sept. 7 to 14 discovered that 17 percent of respondents believed that they would not contract the virus.

“It’s a challenge for [the task force] to inform the public that COVID-19 is real and not a conspiracy,” said national COVID-19 task force chief Doni Monardo in a virtual meeting on Friday.

Sonny Harry B Harmadi, COVID-19 task force head of behavior change, added that Indonesia had a limited number of doctors and health workers.

“If we don’t stop the transmission, the number of cases will continue to increase. With limited facilities, we’re going to face a [serious] problem,” he said.

With that in mind, the national COVID-19 task force has requested the National Population and Family Planning Board (BKKBN) to assist it in socializing 3M health protocols.

The 3M stands for “menggunakan masker” (mask-wearing), “mencuci tangan” (hand-washing) and “menjaga jarak” (social-distancing). These health protocols are deemed effective in preventing individuals from contracting COVID-19.

For the program, BKKBN will involve around 22,000 family planning consultants, both civil servants (PNS) and non-civil servants.

Targeting families, individuals and communities, they will educate people in 34 provinces about the importance of practicing 3M.

Read also: COVID-19 cases in prioritized provinces decrease, but still high: Task force

Sonny said that dissemination of information would not simply repeatedly encourage people to abide by health protocols. However, they wanted to ensure that the public understood the benefits of applying these health protocols.

Sonny added that they had to change the people’s mindset on the 3M program and the BKKBN had the potential to successfully promote it.

“[The public] needs to know the benefits [of 3M], because actions are based on beliefs. It’s similar to the success of the KB [family planning village] program, where [BKKBN] changed the paradigm, advocating [the mindset] that two children are enough,” he explained.

In addition to 3M, the program will educate people about “iman”, “aman” and “imun”.

“‘Iman’ means faith, ‘aman’ means safety, referring to the 3M health protocols, and ‘imun’ means to encourage people to improve their immunity system,” said Sonny.

“If people obey the health protocols, we can [significantly] reduce the transmission rate in three weeks,” added Sonny.

Responding to the program, BKKBN deputy of advocacy, mobilization and information affairs Nofrijal said that based on the board’s experience and current resources, they were certain that they could give of their best for the COVID-19 task force. (jes)