Public education, PT MRT Jakarta (Perseroda) and Calmic held a talk show about the importance of hand hygiene in preventing viruses

8 February 2020

At the beginning of 2020, we were shocked by the Coronavirus outbreak that originated in Wuhan, China. The virus, later named COVID-19, has become an epidemic and has begun to infect people from various parts of the world. As of March 1, 2020, at least 87.137 people have been infected with the coronavirus and 2,873 deaths worldwide.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has appealed to countries around the world to be aware of this virus. It is important for all people to keep themselves safe from possible virus transmission. One of the best prevention for virus transmission can be done through personal hygiene, especially through the good and proper hand hygiene practice - in which still not many people who are fully aware of the importance of hand hygiene.

As the leading hygiene service provider, Calmic feels the urgency to educate people about the importance of good hand hygiene behaviour. This education program was realized through a talk show with the theme "The Importance of Hand Hygiene in Preventing Virus". The talk show which held on Sunday morning, March 1 took place at the Bundaran HI MRT Station which was also attended by Head of DKI Jakarta Health Office Widyastuti. This talkshow felt so special because it was directly facilitated by PT MRT Jakarta (Perseroda) as a provider of the modern railway-based public transportation and was also attended by Mrs Mungki Indriati Pratiwi as Head of the Jakarta MRT Customer Engagement Division. We expected that this talk show can provide better knowledge and understanding of the wide audience on the importance of hand hygiene in preventing the spread of viruses.

The talk show was also attended by competent speakers in their fields, including Dr. Danar Wicaksono and Denny Trismulyanto (senior marketing manager) from Calmic. It is important to always be vigilant when the coronavirus spreads in various parts of the world, but there is no reason to panic. "At least we can do something to prevent virus transmission through good personal hygiene. Good personal hygiene such as hand hygiene must be done seriously, including the cough and sneeze etiquette. This is all we can do especially in public places such as hospitals, MRT stations and others in order to prevent the virus transmission in public areas", said Dr Danar Wicaksono who is also the winner of the 2019 L-Men 1st Runner Up. Mr. Denny Trismulyanto also added "The public area manager must be aware of the current conditions. The virus prevention can be done through their support in regard to creating a hygienic environment to the public facilities, including the MRT station. I really appreciate how good the MRT management is to support the hand hygiene facility by providing hand sanitiser dispensers in several spots around the station”.

This talk show was even more interesting because both the participants and event committee are together demonstrated the stages of proper handwashing. The process of proper handwashing is started to rub both hands thoroughly, including the fingers and fingertips or nails. This needs to be done correctly to give complete protection to hands that are considered very vulnerable to the spread of the virus.