Will COVID-19 Change The World And Human’s Behavior?
By: Monalisa Irmayanti Hasibuan
Indonesia
is one of the countries that has announced the first case of COVID-19 for a
long time since the outbreak of the virus in December 2019 in China. Until
finally Indonesia officially recognized the outbreak of the COVID-19 on March
2, 2020 with the announcement of the first two patients by President Joko
Widodo. Which means that now it has been almost four months that Indonesia has
continued to struggle against this pandemic. Since then, the number of positive
cases of COVID-19 in Indonesia has
continued to grow. Until june 27, 2020, government official statement said
there were 52.812 people who were positively infected, 21.909 people were cured
and 2.720 people died. The increase in new cases every day makes the government
must move quickly to stop the spread of COVID-19. The government made a policy
related to the spread of COVID-19 in all fields, both education, all sectors of
the industry, procedures for worship in the midst of a pandemic and while in
public areas. With the increasing number of victims from COVID-19, the
government took a quick step in overcoming the spread of COVID-19 in Indonesia
by issuing several health regulations and later this will become a new habit
for the community if COVID-19 cannot be defeated.
The
main rule is that people must use a face mask and washing hands frequently with
soap. This method is considered quite effective in preventing the spread of the
virus. When leaving the house everyone must use a face mask. And if someone do
not use it in the public area it will be given sanctions or fines. The penalty
to be imposed by the government is 250 thousand rupiahs or by conducting social
activities. Besides maintaining cleanliness is also very important in the
current situation. Always washing hands with soap is strongly recommended to
reduce the possibility of spreading the virus. The National Institute of
Allergy and Infectious Diseases said that some viruses can remain active after
2-3 days on plastic and stainless steel, 24 hours on cardboard, and four hours
on copper. Therefore it is highly recommended to always washing hands especially after leaving the house and
must be in the right way at least 20 seconds using soap and water, or use hand
sanitizer.
Besides
that, the government also requires everyone to do Social Distancing and stay at
home. Social distancing, also called "physical distancing," means
keeping space between yourself and other people outside of your home. COVID-19
spreads mainly among people who are in close contact (within about 6 feet) for
a prolonged period. Spreads occur when an infected person coughs, sneezes, or
talks, and droplets from their mouth or nose are launched into the air and land
in the mouth or noses of people nearby. The droplets can also be hidden into
the warp. Recent studies indicate that people who are infected but don't have
symptoms likely also play a role in the spread of COVID-19. So it is very
important to keep a distance from others to reduce the risk of contracting. Not
only Social Distancing, the public should also stay at home to help stop the
transmission of the virus. Do not leave the house for reasons that are not
important and do not gather with the crowd. Although the risk of severe illness
may be different for everyone, anyone can get and spread COVID-19. Everyone has
a role to play in slowing the spread and protecting themselves, their family,
and their community.
The
third is to learn from home. Since the increasing number of COVID-19 cases in
Indonesia, the government has decided to close schools and Universities and
study online. As carried out by many countries, to prevent transmission of the COVID-19
in schools, the Minister of Education and Culture issued a circular dated March
24, 2020 which regulates the implementation of education in the emergency
period of the spread of coronavirus). However, changing patterns or habits is
very difficult. After the enactment of online learning, both teachers and
students had many difficulties in this way. Because in fact, not all students and teachers can access the
internet. In addition, demands for large internet quota costs also make it
difficult for parents of students in the midst of an economic crisis due to
this pandemic. In terms of the province, the more remote the province is, the
smaller the percentage of students who get online learning. In East Java, 40%
of respondents said their children got online learning. In NTB online learning
is less than 10% and in NTT less than 5%. So it can be said that online
learning is still not effective in Indonesia.
Not
only learning from home, but the government also issued regulations to work and
worship from home as well. Dr Ali Khan, an epidemiologist and professor at the
UNMC College of Public Health at the University of Nebraska said that the great
risk of spreading the virus is not from the [office] building but from sick
employees. If one person is sick, he can spread the virus through coughing and
sneezing, touching the surface of objects, and talking to other people up
close. Even on their private tables, viruses can also be spread by droplets
that settle on the surface of objects and cause contamination. Even during the
COVID-19 pandemic, working from home is not feasible for all workers. One of
the reasons is that approximately 60 to 70 percent of Indonesians work in the
informal sector and their jobs necessitate their continuous physical presence.
There are some jobs that cannot be done from home such as gojek or taxi drivers. Gojek must continue to work
outside their home to fulfill their needs.
The
last one is to provide assistance to people affected covid 19. Various research
institutes project this year's economic growth to only 1% and the number of
poor people to jump 12.4 percent or 8.45 million people. Economic conditions
that are chaotic amid a pandemic and with problems faced by the poor make the
government issue a policy to provide social assistance in the form of money or
food. But apparently there is a lot of aid that is misplaced because many who
get help are actually people who are economically capable. And the people who
need it are increasingly troubled in the current conditions. So tit makes few
people who demonstrate demanding the government to re-evaluate the list of
people who are recipients of social assistance.
From
the explanation above, it can be concluded that some of the rules set by the
government to prevent the spread of Covid 19 are not quite appropriate and even
detrimental to some parties. For this reason, the government needs to
re-evaluate and find the right solution for all problems that arise in an
effort to prevent the spread of the virus. And it is hoped that the community
and the government can establish good cooperation to accelerate the eradication
of covid 19 from Indonesia and all will be well again. But if we fail to fight
covid 19, then all current government policies will become our new habits in
the future.
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