Missed Opportunities in the Early Response to COVID-19 in Aceh Province: January to May 2020

Sofyan Sufri,Shannon Rutherford,Nurhayati Nurhayati,Hermansyah Hermansyah,Munazar Munazar,Misbahul Jannah,Ainal Mardhiah,Saiful Bakri,Nurhasanah Nurhasanah,Febi Dwirahmadi

doi:10.24815/ijdm.v4i3.21609

Abstract

Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) pandemic has had catastrophic health and economic impacts worldwide. As of 20 September 2020, Indonesia ranked the third highest of fatalities due to COVID-19 infection in Asia and the second highest of confirmed cases in Southeast Asia. Aceh, a province in the westernmost of the country, has also been impacted by the virus infections.This study aims to investigate the current Central and Aceh provincial government-led responses to COVID-19 pandemic from January to May 2020. It utilises existing regulations, official reports and relevant websites in order to assess and analyse the responses. The findings identify delayed early responses taken by Central and Aceh governments to stop and prevent the virus transmission; the absence of lockdown implementation (border restrictions at entry points such as borderland areas, seaports and airports); premature introduction of the new normal era; the absence of checkpoints and village alert teams throughout 23 districts; and inadequate enforcement of the established regulations to halt the spread of the virus in the province.Various recommendations are provided to enhance the current responses to COVID-19 in the province in order to reduce the pandemic risk to the community going forward, and strengthen the pandemic preparedness and response system.

Highlights

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was first identified as the cause of respiratory tract infectious disease outbreak in December 2019 in Hubei province, China (Cheng et al, 2020)
This study aims to investigate the Indonesian government and Aceh province response to COVID-19 pandemic in the period of January to May 2020
This study has examined the current central and local governments and other relevant institutions’ responses to COVID-9 pandemic

Summary

Introduction

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was first identified as the cause of respiratory tract infectious disease outbreak in December 2019 in Hubei province, China (Cheng et al, 2020). COVID-19 can directly transmit from human to human through inhalation of aerosols exhaled by an infected person, and the viral substance can be carried distances of meters to tens of meters in the air (Morawska et al, 2020). This local transmission potential, combined with the high mobility of people in a globally interconnected world, has meant that cases have spread quickly and widely overtime (Shaw et al, 2020)

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion