TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo reminded the government officials to start preparing scenarios of handling the coronavirus case following the outbreak of the infectious disease that was first emerged in China.

According to him, the government must be well-prepared in dealing with every disaster, both natural and non-natural ones, including the current virus epidemic.

“I need to remind this, non-natural disasters also exist so stay alert. We must have the [worst-case] scenario if it occurs, even though we hope there will be no occurrence,” said the President during the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) national meeting in Sentul Internasional Convention Center (SICC), West Java, Tuesday, February 4.

The former Jakarta governor underlined that ministries and related institutions must prepare a variety of strategies to handle the case, the location of the isolation, and so on to anticipate the possibility of the Wuhan virus entering Indonesia.

“Otherwise, we will stutter [in responding to such a case],” the President remarked.

Later this afternoon, the state head is scheduled to hold a limited meeting with ministers and leaders of related institutions for talks about the country’s readiness in dealing with the impact of the coronavirus.

He pinned hoped the government could respond quickly as it had done when evacuating a total of 238 Indonesians from Wuhan and virus-hit cities of Hubei Province, China.

"I appreciate the rapid reaction of the Foreign Affairs Ministry, the Indonesian Military (TNI), and related ministries and institutions in conducting the evacuation. It is a quick decision that is executed swiftly," Jokowi concluded.

DEWI NURITA