European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic has produced a perfect storm of negative social and economic impacts with inevitable geopolitical consequences. The policy adopted by President Joko Widodo in accelerating the management of Covid-19 at this time is the Large-Scale Social Restrictions (Large-Scale Social Restrictions). The Presidential Decree Number 7/2020 concerning the Establishment of Task Force for the Acceleration of Covid-19 Handling was then amended by the Presidential Decree Number 9/2020 to expand the scope and composition of the Task Force which involves the ministries/agencies involved in accelerating the management of Covid-19. In its implementation, the Task Force has not been able to function optimally due to the lack of community participation, specifically the lack of community arrangements to deal with a pandemic. Therefore, it needs to involve RT/RW in the unit of Task Force officers so that they can be directly involved in the community of the smaller unit. The participation of RT and RW in breaking the Covid-19 chain is very vital since RT and RW are community institutions which are directly linked to the village community. They are the mouth and ears of the government which have for conveying the policies of the government at local (village)/kelurahan, regional, and national level. As the first recipients of the community’s aspirations, they are the heart of community conflicts so that it is them who better understand the extent of the problems and conflicts that arise in the community. This study aimed to support the head of the RT and the head of the RW for optimally strengthening their role in the prevention of the Covid-19 epidemic by informing of the presence of a patient or suspect suffering from an epidemic, assisting in the proper execution of epidemic control efforts, and motivating the community to overcome the epidemic.