TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - In a video conference with Vice President Ma’ruf Amin on Friday, West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil complained about the lack of coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak coordination from the central government with leaders in the greater Jakarta areas (Jabodetabek).

The governor said he often had to act on his own decisions to ensure the livelihood of West Java’s 50 million residents as he could not wait for official instructions from the central government. As a comparison, the area’s population is similar to South Korea’s with 70 percent of them engaging in daily activities in Jabodetabek.

“These three provinces have not engaged in technical communication. It needs to be facilitated. I understand that the Jakarta and the Banten governors are busy, which is why we urge [Pak Ma’ruf] to instruct state ministers to conduct routine coordinations,” said Ridwan to VP Ma’ruf Amin.

According to Ridwan Kamil, West Java sees 223 coronavirus cases each day from swab tests conducted by the local administration. “Added with the long queues of samples in the health ministry’s research and development, which can only handle 200 samples each day,” he said.

This is the reason why Ridwan took the initiative to purchase coronavirus test kits from South Korea that enabled his region to test 500 samples each day at the local health lab.

“From those COVID-19 test kits, we found that Bogor Mayor Bima Arya, the Bandung deputy mayor, and the Karawang regent had all tested positive for coronavirus and four transmission clusters,” said Ridwan Kamil.

DEWI NURITA