Harnessing Digital Technology in 3T Policy to Address

COVID-19 Pandemic

Sudiyatmiko Aribowo

Faculty of Social Science and Political Science, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Medan, Indonesia

Keywords: 3T policy, COVID-19, digital technology, regional development disparities

Abstract: In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic downturn amidst the scarcity of limited resources

and increasingly complex public problems, the Indonesian government must seek to resolve both problems.

To address COVID-19 pandemic issues, the Indonesian government promotes the “3M” protocols and “3T”

policy. As the result, public is largely well-acquainted with “3M” protocols, but on the other hand most people

are still unaware about “3T’ policy in the context of pandemic mitigation. To overcome this gap, Indonesian

government needs to make full use of digital technology to handle COVID-19 pandemic and address a wide

range of pandemic-related issues. Thus, this study analyses the regional development disparities in Indonesia

related to the use of digital technology in 3T policy to address COVID-19 pandemic and the challenges in the

implementation of 3T policy in Indonesia using qualitative methods. This study shows that regional

development disparities in Indonesia causes the occurrence of inequality in various sectors, such as access to

internet. The challenges in the implementation of 3T policy that occur in Indonesia such as infrastructure

disparities, lack of government-oriented coordination, human resources inequality, and people’s indiscipline

impacts on the efforts to flatten the country’s COVID-19 incidence curves and maintain low mortality rates.

1 INTRODUCTION

The spread of COVID-19 continues to occur rapidly

and widely in Indonesia, resulting in changes in

social, political, economic, cultural, and religious life

in various places (Atlani, 2000; Klein, 1997). The

COVID-19 pandemic was first detected on December

31, 2019 in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, People's

Republic of China. Furthermore, World Health

Organization (WHO) classifies COVID-19 as a

global pandemic based on the massive number of

transmission cases that have occurred in more than

110 countries in the world.

Based on the latest data obtained from Indonesia

COVID-19 Task Force (updated on September 12,

2021), there were 4,167,511 cases in Indonesia, of

which 109,869 were active cases, 3,918,753 people

recovered, and 138,889 people died. In addition,

COVID-19 cases in Indonesia have spread to 510

districts/cities in 34 provinces, with the daily

COVID-19 positivity rate as of 12 September 2021 at

3.05%. This figure is already below the standard set

by WHO, which is below 5%. It is noted that this

figure has also decreased from its highest peak,

namely on June 22, 2021, where the positivity rate

reached 51.62%.

The Indonesian Government at the beginning of

the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic actively

minimized the virus’ threat. Furthermore, the

Indonesian government took several policies, such as

installing thermal scanners, preparing hospitals to

handle COVID-19 patients, and closing access to and

from China. However, this response was not effective

because the Indonesian Government did not carry out

massive preventive tests on people who were at risk

of being infected with COVID-19. The response of

the Indonesian Government certainly have an impact

on the decline in public trust in the government,

including the subsequent COVID-19 response

policies. Finally, the Indonesian Government

responded to the problem of the COVID-19 pandemic

after the discovery of the first case on March 2, 2020.

The responses from the Indonesian government that

were deemed less serious resulted in the WHO

writting a letter to President Joko Widodo and ask the

Indonesian government to declare a state of

emergency for COVID-19 nationally. Three days

later, the Indonesian government formed a COVID-

19 Task Force, which at that time was led by the Head

418

Aribowo, S.

Harnessing Digital Technology in 3T Policy to Address COVID-19 Pandemic.

DOI: 10.5220/0011824100003460

In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Social and Political Development (ICOSOP 2022) - Human Security and Agile Government, pages 418-425

ISBN: 978-989-758-618-7; ISSN: 2975-8300

 2023 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. Under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

of the National Disaster Management Agency (Badan

Nasional Penanggulangan Bencana-BNPB) Doni

Monardo who would coordinate the Ministry of

Health, Indonesian Armed Force, and Indonesia

Police.

The Indonesian government has finally

designated COVID-19 as a national disaster through

Presidential Decree of the Republic of Indonesia

Number 12 of 2020 concerning the Determination of

Non-Natural Disasters for the Spread of Corona Virus

Disease 2019 (COVID-19). To catch up with the

delay in handling the COVID-19 pandemic, the

Indonesian government has finally taken a policy that

can minimize the effects of losses both from the

economic and health aspects. These policies include:

a). Two types of social distancing, namely Large-

Scale Social Restrictions and Enforcement of

Community Activity Restrictions Level 1-4 in

accordance with the criteria for the level of the

pandemic situation based on the results of the

assessment in each region; b). The Indonesian

government has also implemented a 3T (tracing, test,

and treatment) policy strategy in dealing with

COVID-19; c). COVID-19 vaccinations; and d). The

Indonesian government provides social aids for the

economic recovery of communities affected by the

COVID-19 pandemic.

Since the entry of COVID-19 into Indonesia, the

Indonesian government has never implemented a

lockdown or regional quarantine policy. The

Indonesian government does not want to implement a

lockdown policy is because it will disrupt the

economy. The regional quarantine policy certainly

has an impact on deteriorating public health

conditions and does not have a significant effect in

increasing national economic growth. However, the

policies taken have saved aspects of the Indonesian

economy from falling. This can be seen from several

countries in the world that have adopted a lockdown

policy, such as the United States and Britain. Inflation

in the United States currently reaches 7.9 percent in

February 2022 (nytimes.com, 2022). Although the

United States has implemented a lockdown policy,

the country has not been able to suppress the spread

of COVID-19. This can be seen from the high number

of cases of COVID-19 infection in the United States,

which is the highest case in the world. This condition

implies that the lockdown policy does not necessarily

bring about positive impact in reducing COVID-19

spread.

In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic and the

economic downturn amidst the scarcity of limited

resources and increasingly complex public problems,

the Indonesian government must seek to resolve the

pandemic and economic problems. The government

is faced with two choices, namely prioritizing the

handling of the COVID-19 pandemic or the national

economy. Due to limited resources on the one hand

and increasingly complex public problems on the

other, it is impossible for the government to solve

these problems simultaneously. The government then

determines the choice of solving these public

problems based on a priority scale, namely running

the economy and not doing a lockdown to overcome

the health crisis caused by the pandemic (Somit and

Peterson, 2003; Dunn, 2004). The Indonesian

government must be able to make policies that are

able to balance health interests and economic interests

in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Although initially the Indonesian government was

deemed unable to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic

together with optimal economic recovery, currently

the Indonesian government is able to take policies

that are in accordance with the duality principles. The

success of the Government of Indonesia in improving

the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic is also

appreciated by WHO (Indonesian House of

Representative, 2021). The handling of the COVID-

19 pandemic must apply the principle of duality, a

principle that emphasizes that efforts to save the

health of citizens can only run well when the

economic development process gets attention and is

adjusted to the protection of health as well. The

reorientation of the duality principle between saving

public health and economic development in the face

of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Indonesian government also promotes the “3M”

protocols (which stands for menggunakan

masker/mask-wearing, mencuci tangan/hand-

washing, and menjaga jarak/social-distancing. The

public is largely well-acquainted with “3M”

protocols, but on the other hand most people are still

unaware about “3T” policy in the context of

pandemic mitigation, according to a recent survey by

research firm IPSOS Indonesia (Jakarta Post, 2020).

IPSOS said such a gap in awareness suggested that

some people had failed to understand that the two

measures were equally crucial in breaking the chain

of COVID-19 transmission.

Nowadays, Indonesia’s testing rate currently

stands around 2.2 tests per 1,000 people from April 4

to 10, 2022 (Jakarta Post, 2022). This number fell

drastically compared with mid-February when the

government was able to test around 8 people per

1,000 population per week (Jakarta Post, 2022).

Given that, the Indonesian government must initiate a

campaign advocating the importance of the 3T

procedures using digital technology. Indonesian

Harnessing Digital Technology in 3T Policy to Address COVID-19 Pandemic

419

government needs to make full use of digital

technology to handle COVID-19 pandemic and

address a wide range of pandemic-related issues.

COVID-19 pandemic challenges Indonesian

government and people to use digital technology to

respond the crisis and, increasingly, is requiring

government to adopt an open government approach

and to use digital communication channels to provide

reliable information on global and national COVID-

19 developments (UN, 2020).

2 RESEARCH METHODS

In order to satisfy the objectives of the research,

qualitative research in descriptive manner was held.

This method offers a complete description and

analysis of the research subject. By definition,

qualitative research is an inquiry process of

understanding social or human problem, based on

building a complex, holistic picture, formed with

words (Creswell, 2014). It is an approach for

exploring and understanding the meaning individuals

or groups ascribe to a social problem. This method is

primarily exploratory and chosen to uncover trends in

thoughts, opinions, and events, as well as to dive

deeper into the problem. Thus, the scope of the study

is guided by the following research questions: How is

regional development disparities in Indonesia related

to the use of digital technology in 3T policy to address

COVID-19 pandemic? What are the challenges in the

implementation of 3T policy in Indonesia?

3 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

The Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) started as

the Theory of Reasoned Action in 1980 to predict an

individual's intention to engage in a behaviour at a

specific time and place. The theory was intended to

explain all behaviours over which people have the

ability to exert self-control (LaMorte, 2019). The key

component to this model is behavioural intent;

behavioural intentions are influenced by the attitude

about the likelihood that the behaviour will have the

expected outcome and the subjective evaluation of the

risks and benefits of that outcome. LaMorte (2019)

also stated that behavioural achievement depends on

both motivation (intention) and ability (behavioural

control). The TPB is comprised of six constructs that

collectively represent a person's actual control over

the behaviour (LaMorte, 2019), such as: attitudes,

behavioural, subjective norms, social norms,

perceived power, and perceived behavioural control.

In addition to TPB, the use of digital technology

also becomes one of the main strategies to be

analysed in this writing. According to Rippa and

Secundo (2019), digital technology is divided into

three parts, namely Digital Artifact, Digital Platform,

and Digital Infrastructure. Digital artifacts are

components of digital technology, applications, or

content that offer certain functions and values to their

users. Digital platform is an environment in which a

piece of software is executed, while digital

infrastructure brings together and interconnects

physical and virtual technologies such as compute,

storage, network, and applications. Together these

three components create a friendly environment for

digital technology to improve and provide the digital

experience for the users. When digital technology is

provided, work can be done in a transformational

approach that enables related stakeholders to work

more effectively, collaboratively, and productively

beyond the confines of physical space.

Before discussing further into people’s action

during COVID-19 pandemic and the way digital

technology helps in reducing the spread of the virus,

one must first take into account the perspective of

regional economics. In regional economics, there are

two classes of models that possess very different

policy implications for dealing with regional

inequality (Kim, 2008). The role of government

involvement is relatively limited to infrastructural

investments that affect the mobility of goods, labours,

and other factors. The potential role for government

intervention is significantly higher in the so-called

“new models of economic geography” based on

imperfect competition and increasing returns (Kim,

2008). First, due to the potential for “cumulative

causation” forces, small subsidies can potentially

have significant first-order effects. Second,

infrastructural investments that increase the mobility

of goods, labours, and capital may have significant

impact on spatial inequality due to the self-enforcing

nature of increasing returns. Third, since the

equilibrium market allocations are inefficient in these

models, markets will not reach the optimal level of

spatial inequality without government intervention

(Krugman and Venables, 1995; Puga, 1999). Murata

(2002) then shows that the level of regional inequality

may be constrained by consumer expenditure

patterns. Regional inequality generally arises as an

economy shifts from agriculture to manufacturing,

but the degree of shift may depend on the rapidity by

which consumers increase their expenditure shares in

manufacturing.

ICOSOP 2022 - International Conference on Social and Political Development 4

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4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

4.1 Regional Development Disparities

in Indonesia

Inequality issues have always been a problem to

Indonesia’s development. Many efforts are taken, yet

the problem remains. These development disparities

are evident not only in physical and infrastructure, but

also in human resource development. Physical

infrastructure refers to several kinds of infrastructure

such as transportation, telecommunications, and

electricity, directly affects economic growth (Torrisi,

2009), while human resource development includes

access and opportunities to education, training, and

new skills to improve one’s ability. Many findings

then conclude that physical and social (education)

infrastructure contributes to inequality increases in

Indonesia though not robustly significant (Nurdina,

2021).

The dynamics of Indonesia's development shows

disparities between Java and other islands outside

Java. Disparities can also be further seen between the

Western Region of Indonesia and the Eastern Region

of Indonesia. Developments between regions show

that regions in Java generally experience much faster

economic development than other regions outside

Java. This brings different opportunities for the

people and causes different challenges for the

government to address. Therefore, to address this

issue, the Indonesian government has tried to

accelerate the infrastructure development in areas that

are lacking. The government also stated that the

current national development priorities focus on

efforts to develop regions to reduce gaps and ensure

equity.

The impact of inequality in development in

Indonesia may vary, but mostly it causes the

occurrence of inequality in various sectors such as

inequality in employment, public facilities, and

education. In addition to that, the access to internet is

also a part of public facilities that is not available in

regions whose infrastructure development is lacking.

The limited, or in some cases the absence of, internet

access brings about impact to many dimensions of

people’s lives during COVID-19 pandemic. Not only

for the purpose of 3T policy during COVID-19

pandemic, people tend to do many things online. The

absence of internet infrastructure creates another

challenge. For the government, it becomes difficult to

implement 3T policy in the said regions. For the

people, it becomes difficult to access education and

connect with other family members.

Addressing this problem from the perspective of

regional economic theory will eventually bring the

discussion to two approaches, they are: the role of

government involvement and infrastructure

investment. To invest in internet infrastructure in

regions outside Java and Bali is not attractive for

investors, both local and foreign investors (Indonesia

Investment, 2017). This is because the level of

investment attractiveness mainly relates to the basic

manufacturing facilities in Indonesia. For example, if

electricity supply is uncertain or transportation costs

are very high, then the investors will not get

maximum profit gain. Therefore, internet investment

in regions outside Java and Bali are very limited to

investment made by the State-Owned Enterprises

(Badan Usaha Milik Negara¬-BUMN).

The potential role for government intervention is

significantly higher in these regions. It needs to be

done because the government’s investment can

increase the mobility of goods, labours, and capital

which later in time may have significant impacts on

reducing the development disparities. due to the self-

enforcing nature of increasing returns. The

government, through the State-Owned Enterprises,

must be the agent of change that brings about better

and more sustainable development in those regions.

4.2 Challenges in the Implementation

of 3T Policy

The implementation of 3T policy surveillance by the

Indonesian government becomes a serious challenge

for the government, as the pandemic finally lasts for

more than a year, Indonesia's testing capabilities as an

early stage of surveillance is still not satisfactory.

Nowadays, Indonesia’s testing rate currently stands

around 2.2 tests per 1,000 people from April 4 to 10,

2022 (Jakarta Post, 2022). This number fell

drastically compared with mid-February when the

government was able to test around 8 people per

1,000 population per week (Jakarta Post, 2022).

The low implementation of 3T policy in handling

COVID-19 is due to infrastructure disparities,

specifically the information and communication

technology disparities. The Information and

Communication Technologies (ICTs) development in

Indonesia is expanding with internet penetration rate

reported to have reached 47.69% or over 126 million

internet users as of 2019 (Indonesia Central Bureau

of Statistics, 2020). With this data, the ICTs in

Indonesia has the opportunity to improve the

development, as well as handling the COVID-19

pandemic. But, the ICTs infrastructure readiness in

Indonesia especially those outside Java and Bali

Harnessing Digital Technology in 3T Policy to Address COVID-19 Pandemic

421

Island was still unavailable to deliver network

service.

For example, in Papua region there were 90% of

regencies and cities whose villages were covered by

lower than 50% mobile network (Faizah et al, 2021).

With the limited access to the infrastructure, the

actual use of ICT in Papua region was bound to be

lower compared to Java and Bali regions. This

information and communication disparities effect the

implementation of 3T policy in several regions in

Indonesia.

In handling COVID-19 pandemic, ICTs is an

excellent means to deliver information quickly and

contact tracing to stop COVID-19 transmission. For

example, in South Korea advanced ICTs was used to

gather data related to personal movement including

phone location data, CCTV images, and details of use

of cash cards, ATMs, and credit cards (ADB, 2021).

In addition, the movement of confirmed cases is

automatically displayed on the map and provided to

epidemiological investigators so they can be used to

find close contact. In Indonesia, the use of ICTs can

be seen on “PeduliLindungi” application to track the

movement, vaccination status, and enter public space.

But this application faces its own challenges when

this application is considered discriminatory because

many people do not have a smart phone or internet

data so they cannot access this application.

Indonesian government has set digital

transformation as one of the key objectives in the

Medium-Term National Development Plan (RPJMN)

2020-2024. Thus, Indonesia government continues to

improve their ICTs capability in handling COVID-19

pandemic. For example, nowadays people with

COVID-19 who already take the PCR test and get

positive results will be automatically be given the

medicine from the government. However, the

implementation of 3T policy in Indonesia also faces

lack of coordination among ministries. A study

conducted by Gadjah Mada University has shown that

a lack of coordination in the government has

exacerbated the impact of COVID-19 handling in

Indonesia. Moreover, the government officials had

regularly given contradictory statements about the

pandemic. For example, in early 2021, the

government prohibited traditional Eid al-Fitr

homecoming, but at the same time the Indonesian

Ministry of Tourism and the Creative Economy began

reopening tourism destinations. To enhance the

implementation of 3T policy using ICTs,

government-coordinated efforts must be improved.

Furthermore, human resource inequality that

occur in regions in Indonesia, particularly in eastern

Indonesia and frontier, outermost and least developed

regions often referred to as 3T (terdepan, terluar,

tertinggal) regions make 3T policy implementation

difficult. These human resources inequality is also the

result of infrastructure inequality so that access to

education and health is limited. Health inequities

create disparities in health status between different

groups of population. COVID-19 pandemic

highlights the pre-existing health inequities and

affects disproportionate health risk to the most

vulnerable groups of population. COVID-19

pandemic will also affect on the increasing inequality

in Indonesia.

This condition is exacerbated by the people’s

indiscipline in implementing health protocols and 3T

policy. COVID-19 forces all people's behaviour to

change according to the crisis they are facing. In this

context, Indonesia follows public health

recommendations and reinforced health behaviours

such as handwashing, wearing mask, and limitation

of social contacts to prevent the virus from further

spreading. Behavioural changes as a response to these

public health recommendations are heavily

dependent on the acquisition of new social norms of

interaction (Wollast et al, 2021).

The Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB)

concludes that health behaviours can be predicted by

intentions to perform them. Intentions refer to the

deliberate will to perform a behaviour before

applying it. These intentions, in turn, are affected a)

by attitudes toward the behaviour and whether people

think it is useful, important or desirable, b) by the

social norms they perceive to be prevailing around

them, and c) by the control that people perceive they

have over their actions (Wollast et al, 2021). Thus, the

TPB holds that attitudes, social norms and perceived

control influence behaviour indirectly through

intentions, such that intentions are the direct

precursor of behaviour. Furthermore, perceived

behavioural control is hypothesized to affect

behaviour indirectly but also directly.

People who have strong sense of control

approach difficult goals, have a strong commitment

to their goals, maintain a task focus, persist in the face

of failure, and attribute failure to a lack of effort.

Therefore, people’s ability to perform a behaviour is

likely to facilitate behavioural performance.

Intentions, attitudes, social norms and the perceived

control to apply handwashing will be greater than for

limitation of social contacts, as the latter is

characterized as an avoidant and unnatural behaviour,

that is more difficult to perform. Indonesia health

behaviour can be seen from the high cases of COVID-

19, while the government implements the social

ICOSOP 2022 - International Conference on Social and Political Development 4

422

distancing policy. People’s behaviour becomes a key

role to tackle COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia.

4.3 Harnessing Digital Technology in

3T Policy to Address COVID-19

Pandemic

Social distancing policy which is being implemented

by the Indonesian government effects the Indonesian

people to rely on the internet for information related

to COVID-19, hence the Indonesian government is

being urged to deploy effective digital technology to

address the pandemic. Indonesian government itself

had posted some information related to COVID-19 on

COVID-19 Task Force website and social media that

can be accessed by the Indonesian people. Indonesian

government information has focused on information

about the outbreak (including statistics of the total

number of cases and fatalities), travel restrictions,

practical guidance on protection, and governmental

response. Indonesia government also designed an

app, namely “PeduliLindungi”.

Some countries, such as South Korea, balancing

health imperatives and privacy concerns, have found

that digital applications can help trace and test people

who have come into contact with an infected person.

However, in Indonesia, the use of digital technology

in Indonesia for handling COVID-19 is still faced

with various obstacles. It is because many regions in

Indonesia do not have the capability of both

infrastructure and human resources to use digital

technology because of the underdevelopment

problems, especially in those frontier, outermost and

least developed regions often referred to as 3T

(terdepan, terluar, tertinggal) regions.

Digital health technology solutions can be used

for people screening, tracking the infection,

prioritizing the use and allocation of resources, and

designing targeted responses. WHO’s Department of

Digital Health and Innovation stated that countries to

be well prepared to digitally detect, protect, respond,

and prepare the recovery for COVID-19. Examining

the technology and related systems that are helpful in

the disease identification, limiting disease spread, and

disease prevention is of paramount importance.

Different new age technologies can be adopted by the

government as an initial response strategy. This

chapter mainly focuses on the use of the Internet of

Things (IoT), Internet of Medical Things (IoMT), and

other smart emerging technologies like drones,

robots, autonomous vehicles (AVs), Bluetooth, and

global positioning system (GPS), which can be

helpful in handling this pandemic (Saher and Anjum,

2021).

IoT is a promising technology of interconnected

computing devices, transmitting data over the

network without any human intervention. In the

recent times, IoMT has captivated major attention

from the field of healthcare. It is a blend of medical

devices and software applications connected to

healthcare IT systems. In the current critical scenario

of COVID-19, the most significant issue after the

development of vaccine is an efficient way of

reachability to the patients. This can be best done by

using the concept of IoT (Saher and Anjum, 2021).

Drones, robots, and AVs technology do not only

ensure minimum human interaction but also can be

beneficial to access contagious COVID-19 patients.

Wearables, making use of the Bluetooth and GPS

technology, is another efficient way to monitor

individual’s health and their day-to-day stress levels

in isolation. Altogether, these technologies can add a

consequential share in the new paradigm of Tele

Medicine, either for prevention of disease or

identification and monitoring of the masses,

paramedical staff, symptomatic, and asymptomatic

COVID positives during the pandemic (Saher and

Anjum, 2021).

In implementing 3T policy, digital technology

plays a major role to make this policy work

effectively. For tracking of people, digital technology

has helped facilitate COVID-19 preparedness, so the

spread of infection can be reduced. Tools such as

maps, mobile phones, mobile payment application,

and social media are capable to collect real-time data

on the location of people. For example, Chinese

government uses this technology to track the

movement of people who had visited the Wuhan

market, the pandemic’s epicenter.

For contact tracing and testing, tools such as

security camera footage, facial recognition

technology, bank records, and GPS data from

vehicles and mobile phones can provide real-time

data and detailed timelines of people’s movement.

This strategy is used by South Korea government, and

the government will send its people emergency text

alert about new COVID-19 cases in their region and

people who could have been in contact with infected

people. After that, they will instruct the people to

report for testing and self-isolate. By using this

strategy, South Korea has maintained among the

lowest per-capita mortality in the world (The New

York Times, 2020). In Singapore, people have their

temperature measured at the entries of workplaces,

schools, and public transport. The data from the

thermometers is tracked and used to identify

emerging hot spots and clusters of infection where

testing could be initiated.

Harnessing Digital Technology in 3T Policy to Address COVID-19 Pandemic

423

For treatment, digital technology can be used to

send medicine to people infected with COVID-19. In

Indonesia, people with COVID-19 who already took

the PCR test will be recorded in “PeduliLindungi”

application. Based on the test result, the infected

individuals will automatically receive the medicine

for free. But, this application has its weakness

because this application is not connected to Integrated

Social Welfare Data (Data Terpadu Kesejahteraan

Sosial-DTKS). If it is connected to the Integrated

Social Welfare Data, the people who live under

poverty lines and affected by COVID-19 will also

receive food and cash transfer provided by the

government. Hence, when lives becomes more

challanging due to COVID-19 for the people who live

under poverty lines, there will not be any social unrest

and political instability because the government is

present and provided supports for its people.

5 CONCLUSIONS

Developments between regions show that regions in

Java generally experience much faster economic

development than other regions outside Java. This

brings about different opportunities for the people and

causes different challenges for the government to

address. The impact of inequality in development in

Indonesia vary, but mostly it causes the occurrence of

inequality in various sectors such as inequality in

employment, public facilities, and education. In

addition to that, the access to internet is also a part of

public facilities that is not available in regions whose

infrastructure development is lacking. The limited, or

in some cases the absence of, internet access brings

about impact to many dimensions of people’s lives

during COVID-19 pandemic. Not only for the

purpose of 3T policy during COVID-19 pandemic,

people tend to do many things online. The absence of

internet infrastructure creates another challenge. For

the government, it becomes difficult to implement 3T

policy in the said regions. For the people, it becomes

difficult to access education and connect with other

family members.

COVID-19 pandemics also change people’s

behaviour. They are expected to implement health

protocols to minimize the spread of the virus.

People’s behaviour becomes a key role to tackle

COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia. Indonesia health

behaviour can be seen from the high cases of COVID-

19, while the government implements the social

distancing policy. Therefore, people’s ability to

perform a behaviour is likely to facilitate behavioural

performance. Intentions, attitudes, social norms, and

the perceived control to apply handwashing will be

greater than for limitation of social contacts, as the

latter is characterized as an avoidant and unnatural

behaviour, that is more difficult to perform.

Other than that, the integration of digital

technology into pandemic policy and response could

be one of several characteristic features of countries

that have flattened their COVID-19 incidence curves

and maintained low mortality rates. The lesson

learned from other countries who use digital

technology is that countries that have quickly

deployed digital technologies to facilitate planning,

surveillance, testing, contact tracing, quarantine, and

clinical management have remained front-runners in

managing disease burden.

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