REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- The Indonesian government's efforts to raise awareness among the people regarding the outbreak of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in the Arabic Peninsula is seen to be poor, a legislator noted here on Tuesday.
"The efforts of the Indonesian Health Ministry and Religious Affairs Ministry in disseminating information about the MERS coronavirus outbreak is still not enough to raise awareness," stated Okky Asokawati, a legislator of the House of Representatives' Commission IX.
Current news circulating in the local media about MERS is considered insufficient to disseminate information related to the deadly virus threat to the public in general.
"I have not yet seen any notification notes about MERS being circulated by the governmental institutions to the Hajj and Umra travel agents," Okky pointed out.
Both the Health Ministry and Religious Affairs Ministry should have distributed pamphlets regarding the prevention of the deadly MERS virus outbreak before any citizen goes for a pilgrimage journey.
"The government's plea to postpone the pilgrimage for people above 50 years of age is not effective. If the government can directly sent notification notes to the travel agents then it will significantly help in raising MERS awareness," Okky added.
The Hajj and Umra travel agents should have been asked to provide face masks or gloves for the Umra pilgrims as a preventative measure, Okky remarked.
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