APSN Banner

Medan District Court declared COVID-19 cluster, one judge dies

Source
Jakarta Post - September 4, 2020

Apriadi Gunawan, Medan – The Medan District Court in North Sumatra has been declared a COVID-19 cluster after 38 staff members and judges, including the head of the court, Sutio Jumagi Akhirno, tested positive for the coronavirus.

One of the judges, Somadi, has reportedly died of the disease and was buried under COVID-19 protocol on Wednesday evening.

"According to swab test results from Wednesday, 25 staffers and 13 judges are COVID-19 positive. We will do more testing on Friday to determine the number of staff infected and curb the transmission," Medan District Court deputy chief Abdul Aziz told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

He added that all of the infected staff and judges had immediately gone into self-isolation.

Judge Immanuel Tarigan of the Medan District Court said that, given the latest situation, the work-from-home policy for staff and judges that was supposed to end on Thursday would be extended to Sept. 11.

Immanuel admitted that the extension of working from home would affect the integrated service at the district court. "The court will temporarily close the one-stop integrated service [PTSP], which serves the submission of files and claims. However, we are still open for trials," he said.

Meanwhile, Medan District Court spokesperson Tengku Oyong said the court would impose a lockdown if there was still COVID-19 transmission among court staff and judges next week.

On Thursday, North Sumatra saw 141 more confirmed COVID-19 cases and three more COVID-19 deaths, bringing the total number of infections in the province to 7,265 and fatalities to 324. Meanwhile, a total of 4,282 patients have recovered from the disease. (aly)

Source: https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2020/09/03/medan-district-court-declared-covid-19-cluster-one-judge-dies.html

Country