Indonesian authorities has taken the punishment for quarantine violators to a whole new level. The head of Sragen regency in Central Java is the latest Indonesian official to enforce a policy that involves the supernatural.
According to reports, a lot of locals from Sragen have returned to villages in the regency from cities in the past few weeks out of fear of lockdowns. There are also a number of people in the regency under health authorities' watchlist for possible coronavirus infections, who are officially referred to as people under surveillance or ODP.
A "scary" punishment
Sragen Regent Kusdinar Untung Yuni Sukowati did not hold back when she warmed the two groups to self-isolate at home for 14 days. She said that if the groups continue to disobey the self-isolation orders, several villages have asked for her permission to quarantine them in an abandoned elementary school or abandoned houses.
Kusdinar also stated in her interview with Tribun that she gave her permission that if need be, they should be locked inside in a haunted house if necessary. But the government will still feed them and monitor them.
Two residents of Plupuh village found out the hard way that Kusdinar was not joking around. Kusdinar told Suara that the two Plupuh residents agreed to self-isolate but they violated the order. So the two residents were locked inside an abandoned haunted house. Kusdinar added that if the two residents just obeyed the government's order, they would not have been locked in the haunted house.
Kusdinar added that the haunted house, located in the middle of a rice paddy, in known by locals to be haunted. She did not say how long the self-isolation violators would have to serve their sentence in the haunted house.
Officials say that using abandoned buildings is a very practical necessity in the regency, as there is no dedicated quarantine facility in the region. As of April 19, five people have tested positive of the virus in Sragen and there was one confirmed death.
Current state in Indonesia
When the coronavirus reached ASEAN countries, Indonesia is one of the countries that was hit hard by the virus. The Indonesia government did not take the virus seriously in early 2020 until it was too late. The first 2,000 cases of the virus started in Jakarta and has slowly spread all across the 34 provinces.
The pandemic is far from over, and Indonesia, who has weak health care system, is considered the most at risk. The Indonesian Doctors Association has asked the government to protect medical personnel and to avoid workers from treating COVID-19 patients without proper safeguards. More than 100 health works have been infected in Jakarta and more than 18 association members have died.
The Indonesian government said it has distributed hundreds of thousands of pieces of protective equipment nationwide, but the gear remains scarce, forcing many hospitals to ask for donations for simple supplies like hand sanitizer and gloves. As of April 20, Indonesia has a total of 7,135 confirmed coronavirus cases with 26 deaths and 842 recovered.
