TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has warned of the dangers of a second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It’s important for us to control the counter flow (of people) returning to the Greater Jakarta area, so that there is no back and forth circulation in the spread of the virus, which has the potential to cause a second (COVID-19) wave,” said Jokowi in a limited meeting on Wednesday, May 27.

In addition, the President revealed that the trend for both R0 and Rt figures in Jakarta has slowed down to less than 1. In spite of this, Jokowi has called for the COVID-19 reproduction number to be kept under pressure to decrease even further.

Furthermore, Jokowi has instructed the COVID-19 Task Force and the relevant ministries to focus on provinces that continue to record a high number of COVID-19 cases, such as East Java.

“I truly ask for the Minister of Health and the Task Force to be attentive to East Java,” Jokowi said.

In regards to the acceleration of sample testing, Jokowi asked for more efforts to control the tracing of COVID-19 transmission, including in provinces outside of Java with high COVID-19 transmission rate, such as South Sulawesi, South Borneo, South Sumatra, Papua and West Nusa Tenggara.

"The target of testing 10,000 specimens per day that I had set needs to be seriously pursued, so that there really is an acceleration (in sample testing)," Jokowi remarked.

EGI ADYATAMA | DIO SUHENDA (INTERN TRANSLATOR)