Utilizing Bersatu Lawan COVID-19 (BLC) Integrated System to Monitor Micro-level Community Actions as Pandemic Control Strategy in Indonesia: Evaluation Study (Preprint)

BACKGROUND In efforts to control the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government of Indonesia issued policies of micro-scale activity restrictions (PPKM Mikro/Micro PPKM) to limit community mobility by building COVID-19 command posts (Posko) at micro-scale (RT/RW) level and implementing Micro PPKM through community participation as a bottom-up approach. OBJECTIVE This study aims to describe the monitoring results of Micro PPKM implementation through the Bersatu Lawan COVID-19 digital mobile application, and the impact such granular information might have in curbing the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS Data was collected from front-line public order forces (police and military) and Behavioral Change Ambassadors reports submitted using the BLC apps. The data was reported in real-time and analyzed by the integrated system of the Indonesia National Task Force for the Acceleration of COVID-19 Mitigation. RESULTS As of February 28, 2022, the total of COVID-19 command posts established were 29,913. A total of 151 million reports of micro PPKM activities were recorded using the BLC application in 44,770 villages/wards, 5,502 sub-districts, and 474 regencies/cities throughout the province. The top 5 most reported activities were 3M education and outreach, distribution of masks, enforcement of discipline, support for vaccination programs, and supervision of entering and exiting areas. CONCLUSIONS Indonesia adopted a bottom-up approach strategy to control the COVID-19 pandemic by utilizing a reporting system linked to community-driven activities at the lowest national administrative level. The reports were made available to different institutional users enabling uniformity in understanding of public health information. The system can potentially be repurposed for future healthcare emergency events. CLINICALTRIAL N/A