TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil along with Bogor Regent Ade Munawaroh Yasin visited face masks factory in Bogor Regency. They demanded the production of the masks to be immediately increased amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I and Bogor Regency @ademunawarohyasin ask the hike in production by at least 1 million masks per day at the end of this month,” said Kang Emil, the governor’s familiar call, via his Instagram account on Thursday, April 16.

According to Kamil, the factory owners agreed to the request and they had purchased new machines to support the production. "So the commodity will be in great abundance to fight hoarders and so the price will become cheap," he added.

The number of positive COVID-19 cases in West Java kept increasing. As of April 16, at 8 a.m., reported in pikobar.jabarprov.go.id, the figure reached 559 cases, with 52 death tolls and 23 recoveries.

Kamil further revealed that the face masks had met the standards of the World Health Organization (WHO), but stopped short of mentioning the factory’s name.

Given the potential that West Java is home for 60 percent industry in Indonesia, Kamil believed his province could produce surgery face masks independently and massively.

“If Bogor Regency and West Java have enough stock of face masks, the goods can be delivered to other Indonesia’s provinces, and then export them to help other countries,” Ridwan Kamil concluded.

EKO WAHYUDI