Globally, WHO noted that as of 27 July 2021, there were 194,337,614 confirmed COVID-19 cases, including 4,162,590 dead. Meanwhile, Indonesia ranks 19th with the most cases in the world with a total of cases 3,239,936 (an increase of 624,407  (from July 14-27 2021) including 86,835 dead. With the number of cases increasing, COVID-19 has plunged Indonesia into a health crisis and recession. This situation urges the government to make decisions by prioritizing the handling of the pandemic and economic recovery simultaneously. The COVID-19 pandemic has also accelerated various digital technology innovations, especially in the health sector.

The government’s shortcomings in dealing with this pandemic can be seen from at least two things, namely prevention and handling. In terms of prevention, there are several things that the authors have seen as shortcomings. The first is the lack of responsiveness of the initial response after the first confirmed positive patient, such as the delay in setting policies related to activity restrictions and restrictions on people’s mobility. The second point is the lack of massive socialization or campaigns to the public about how and what they can do to fight this pandemic independently in the early stages. As a result, the public becomes less alert and continues to do activities outside, even though it has been prohibited through the enactment of the PSBB and PPKM policies.

In terms of handling, the government’s shortcoming lies in the slow provision of special health facilities to handle COVID-19 cases, both for testing and treatment. For self-testing, only 3 laboratory units are available when the first positive case is confirmed. Meanwhile, for treatment purposes, adequate equipment and isolation rooms should be required for positive patients. However, it turns out that this is not enough, as can be seen from the availability of personal protective equipment (PPE) for medical staff which is still inadequate (Bernie, 2020). This has resulted in COVID-19 patients being neglected due to insufficient hospital capacity. This was exacerbated by the slow process of the swab test which took more than 3 days (Bernie, 2020), and resulted in delays in handling as well as tracing the process of people interacting with positive patients, patients under surveillance (PDP), and people under monitoring ( ODP).

Reporting from Vox.com, some of the successful countries include Vietnam, Taiwan, South Korea, Slovenia, Jordan, Iceland, China, and several other countries. Each of these countries has a different way of dealing with, tackling, and preventing the spread of COVID-19, but the mechanisms they use have several similarities, namely implementing strict social restrictions, conducting massive tests, and tracing to the population, isolating indicated patients. positive, utilizing technology in handling COVID-19, taking preventive actions such as an appeal to wear masks to residents, being open to the public regarding information related to the development of COVID-19, and not a few countries implementing a lockdown (Ward, 2020).

Utilization of Technology

To overcome the pandemic, in addition to implementing the manual policies above, the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic can also be carried out by utilizing technological advances. Several technologies emerged in the industrial revolution 4.0 era that is useful for handling COVID-19, namely artificial intelligence (AI), big data, internet of things (IoT), virtual reality (VR), holography, cloud computing, autonomous robots, 3D scanning, 3D printing, and biosensors (Javaid et al., 2020). Of these many technologies, the author will discuss the use of AI which is used for many purposes, including early detection and predicting outbreaks, manufacturing robots, producing CT scans that are useful for detecting pneumonia in a person, and various other uses to support the health insurance system.

Not to forget, Indonesia also seems to have begun to use robotic personnel to slightly reduce the workload that must be borne by medical personnel. So what do these robots look like? Assigned to do what? The following is a row of robots that have been assisted to participate in handling the COVID-19 virus pandemic in Indonesia

1. Amy and Temy

Pertamina Jaya Hospital (RSPJ) Jakarta is one of the pioneers of hospitals that are willing to open themselves to the use of robotics to overcome the limitations of available medical personnel. There are two types of robots used, each of which is named Amy and Temi. Robot Amy is said to be tasked with delivering food, medicine, and all equipment for patients to their isolation rooms. Meanwhile, Temi is more alert as a medium for controlling well as a communication medium between patients and nurses or the medical team on duty.

a. AMY

The robot is one of the robots originating from China. This robot is one of the robots that take part in handling COVID-19 in the world. In Indonesia, only Pertamina Jaya Hospital has this robot.

Advantages of Amy

  1. The maximum load that can be lifted is 10 kg
  2. Deliver goods or food to patients

Disadvantages of Amy

  1. Operation is not easy
  2. The paths in the modular hospital are uneven which can cause the robot to get stuck
  3. Unable to open door
  4. Speed ​​is not fast

a. Temi

Robot The TEMI Robot is one of the robots originating from the US. This robot is one of the robots taking part in the handling of COVID-19 in the world, which is currently also being used at Pertamina Jaya Hospital.

Advantages of Temi

  1. The maximum load that can be lifted is 3 kg
  2. Deliver goods or food to the patient
  3. Can be used to monitor and communicate between patients and medical staff through the video call feature
  4. Entertaining patients with music facilities on TEMI

Disadvantages of Temi

  1. The paths in the modular hospital are uneven which can cause the robot to get stuck
  2. Unable to open door
  3. Speed ​​is not fast

2. RAISA

There is another robot whose job is like Amy at RSPJ Jakarta, which is to be an ‘assistant’ for medical personnel who will send all needs such as a supply of medicine, food, clothing, and various other patient needs. According to its function, this robot is named Robot Medical Assistant ITS-Airlangga (RAISA).

So far, according to Ashari, ITS has produced 12 RAISA robots and so far they have been used in six hospitals. These include the Unair Hospital, Dr. Soetomo Hospital, Husada Utama Hospital in Surabaya, Saiful Anwar Hospital in Malang, the Wisma Athlete Emergency Hospital in Jakarta, and most recently the Surabaya Hospital. The following are some of the benefits of RAISA applied to these hospitals:

  • Sending Various Patient Needs

Process of distributing necessities no longer requires direct contact between patients and medical personnel, so that available medical personnel can concentrate more on more urgent medical actions. RAISA is designed to be able to send various patient needs, ranging from medicine, personal protective equipment in the form of face shields, food, and so on.

  • Two-way communication

Raisa’s development goal is to reduce direct contact between medical personnel and COVID-19 patients. So that the potential for transmission of the new type of coronavirus that causes COVID-19 to medical personnel can be minimized. This includes saving on the use of personal protective equipment (PPE).

Although the robot developed by ITS-Unair can carry out two-way communication. The robot can ask patient complaints, it can also take the temperature. This robot is operated by an operator and is equipped with sensors, so it can walk in the specified direction, for example, to several COVID-19 patient rooms.