Health Ministry Issues New Guidelines on COVID-19 Handling

Minister of Health Terawan Agus Putranto has issued Decree of Minister of Health number HK.01.07/MENKES/413/2020 on Guidelines for Prevention and Control of COVID-19.

The Decree introduces several terms in COVID-19 handling. The terms include “probable” which refers to the suspect with severe acute respiratory infections (ARI) or respiratory failure due to acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) or those who died with a convincing clinical symptom of COVID-19 without any laboratory examination result of rapid test or PCR test.

The Decree also changes the existing terms of person under observation (ODP), patients under surveillance (PDP), and asymptomatic carriers (OTG) to “suspect case”, “confirmed case” (symptomatic and asymptomatic), and “close contact”.

1. The suspect case refers to a person who has one of the following criteria:
2. A person with acute respiratory infections (ARI) and in the last 14 days before the symptom occurrence has a history of travel or living in a country/region of Indonesia that reports local transmission.
3. A person with one of the symptoms of the ARI, and in the last 14 days before symptom occurrence has a history of contact with a confirmed/probable COVID-19 case.
4. A person with severe ARI/pneumonia who needs treatment in hospital and having no other cause based on a convincing clinical symptom.
5. The confirmed case is a person who tests positive for the COVID-19 based on rapid test-PCR test. The confirmed case is divided into two, namely the confirmed cases with symptoms (symptomatic), and the confirmed cases without symptoms (asymptomatic).
6. The close contact is a person who has a history of contact with a COVID-19 probable case or confirmed case. The aforementioned contact history includes:
7. Face to face contact/proximity to probable cases or confirmed cases within a radius of 1 meter and within a period of 15 minutes or more.
8. Direct physical touch with probable or confirmed cases (including shaking hands, holding hands, etc.)
9. A person who provides direct treatment for probable cases or confirmed cases without using standardized personal protective equipment.
10. Other situations that indicate the contact, based on local risk assessments determined by the local epidemiological investigation team (the explanation is attached).

In symptomatic probable or confirmed case, the close contact period is determined from 2 days before the case occurrence and up to 14 days after the case symptoms occurrence.

In asymptomatic confirmed case, the close contact period is determined from 2 days before and 14 days after the date of specimen collection of the confirmed case.

In addition to the terms, the Decree also includes other terms, including traveler, discarded, complete isolation, and death.

A traveler is a person who has traveled domestically or abroad in the last 14 days.

Discarded refers to one of the following criteria:

1. A person with suspect status with 2 time negative rapid test-PCR test results for 2 consecutive days with an interval of >24 hours.
2. A person with close contact status who has completed the quarantine period of 14 days.

Complete Isolation refers to the patient who meets one of the following criteria:

1. Asymptomatic confirmed cases without rapid test-PCR test follow-up with additional 10 days of self- isolation since the specimen is taken.
2. Probable cases/confirmed cases with symptoms (symptomatic) without rapid test-PCR test follow-up after 10 days from the date of symptom occurrence plus at least 3 days after symptom disappearance of fever and respiratory problems.
3. Probable cases/confirmed cases with symptoms (symptomatic) with a negative rapid test-PCR test follow-up, plus at least 3 days after not showing symptoms of fever and respiratory problems. (Public Relations of Ministry of Health/EN)

Translated by: Ridwan Ibadurrohman
Reviewed by: Mia Medyana