dr. Citra Indriani, MPH., as UGM epidemiologist, reminded of the possibility of an evacuees cluster due to natural disasters in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic.
"The potential for a Covid-19 cluster occurs in evacuees is quite large," she said on Wednesday (16/9).
She said the high potential for the emergence of evacuees cluster was due to people's considerable potential to assemble from various areas. Besides, it is also not possible to implement a physical distancing because there is an incomparable number of people affected by evacuation.
She also continued that the behavior of ignoring health protocols in times of flooding often happens to the evacuees. This condition is because the evacuees are more focused on saving themselves first from disasters.
As is known, floods hit several areas in the country. Likewise, there is still a strong possibility of the potential for volcanic disasters in several areas.
the UGM FKKMK lecturer also continued to explain that there were no reports of transmission through the water until now. She mentioned that the main transmission of Covid-19 is through droplets or splashes of sneezing or coughing from people infected with Covid-19 in an infectious period. Meanwhile, people would get indirect transmission when they were in contact with surfaces contaminated with the coronavirus.
So what are the efforts to anticipate in order to prevent the occurrence of evacuees cluster? Citra emphasizes there should be a need for mapping disaster-prone areas. Then, mitigation efforts are added to prevent the Covid-19 cluster from occurring in the evacuation barracks.
"The reason why this could happen is that currently, Covid-19 transmission still occurs and even becomes a permanent transmission in the community. There are also still occurring conditions that make it impossible to maintain distance, wash hands, use masks will encourage transmission," Citra explained.
Author: Ika
Photo: Tempo.co/AP Photo / Binsar Bakkara
Translator: Natasa A