PANGKALPINANG – The spread of Covid-19 transmission in the Province of the Bangka Belitung Islands, as a prevention effort within the company, PT Timah Tbk carried out antigen swabs for hundreds of employees, which was held at PT Timah Tbk's Head Office, Tuesday (15/2/2022).
President Director of PT Timah Tbk, Achmad Ardianto with the Bangka Belitung Islands Police Chief, Inspector General of Police Yan Sultra Indrajaya, Head of Class III Port Health Office (KKP) Pangkalpinang, dr. Bangun Cahyo Utomo, Secretary of the Covid-19 Task Force for the Bangka Belitung Islands Province, Micron Antariksa also directly observed the implementation of the antigen swab carried out by PT Timah Tbk.
In addition to detecting the potential spread of Covid-19, this antigen swab is also an implementation of the OHS (K3) culture carried out by the company to provide protection for employees.
President Director of PT Timah Tbk, Achmad Ardianto said this screening is routinely carried out by the company as an effort to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in the company's environment. This activity is not only carried out by the head office but throughout the company's operational areas.
"We will routinely hold this screening as a form of mitigation related to preventing the spread of Covid-19. Currently, all elements must move, PT Timah Tbk is collaborating with the Regional Government to prevent the rapid transmission of the Omicron variant," he said.
According to him, PT Timah Tbk has also taken preventive measures within the company, such as starting to implement partial work from home (WFH), tightening the implementation of health protocols, and taking a number of other anticipatory steps.
Bangka Belitung Police Chief, Inspector General of Police Yan Sultra Indrajaya said the screening effort which was held by PT Timah Tbk was the first step to assist the Government in breaking the chain of spread of Covid-19.
"This is a positive thing, because we are indeed intensively carrying out tracing, because the omicron virus is increasing . The more we trace, the sooner we can find out. so we can accelerate the prevention," he said.
Secretary of the Covid-19 Task Force for the Bangka Belitung Islands Province, Mikron Antariksa, said the spike in Covid-19 cases in Babel had spiked since early February, his party recorded active cases of Covid-19 until February 14 reaching 977 people. So that tracing, tracking and treatment must be done massively to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
Based on the Instruction of the Minister of Home Affairs Number 11 of 2022 concerning PPKM, five
Regencies/Cities in the Province of the Bangka Belitung Islands are set at level III, while the other two regions, namely South Bangka and West Bangka, are at Level I.
"The spread of omicron in Bangka Belitung is quite massive with a spike in cases, so this kind of screening must be carried out immediately. PT Timah Tbk has started this and we also encourage others to do the same,” said Mikron.
According to him, this screening needs to be done in order to determine the next step, PT Timah Tbk as an industry is expected to be able to carry out this routinely so that it can help the Regional Government in handling Covid-19.
Head of Class III Port Health Office (KKP) Pangkalpinang, dr. Bangun Cahyo Utomo explained, to speed up breaking the chain of Covid-19 spreads, the main things that must be done are vaccination, tracing, tracking, treatment and discipline in implementing health protocols.
"What PT Timah Tbk has done is quite right and we hope this can help break the chain of Covid-19 spreads," he said.
His party also continues to boost the implementation of vaccinations in the Province of the Bangka Belitung Islands to accelerate the achievement of herd immunity or people's immunity to reduce the transmission of Covid-19. *
