Govt Criticized for Focusing on Eid Holiday Policy amid Pandemic
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5 May 2020 23:18 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - An epidemiologist at the University of Indonesia, Pandu Riono, asked the government not to focus on managing the Eid al-Fitr holiday or Lebaran since the end of the Covid-19 pandemic was still unknown.
“[The government] should just remove collective leave days. [It’s feared that] it (the holiday) is moved and moved again because we have not yet known the situation later,” said Pandu, who is also a lecturer at the UI’s Public Health Faculty, via a phone call on Tuesday, May 5.
Pandu suggested the government postpone all collective leave throughout 2020 and focus on preventing the further spreading of the coronavirus by enforcing the Large-Scale Social Restrictions or PSBB more strictly and increasing the capacity of Covid-19 tests.
“We don’t know what the situation will become yet, so in the meantime, don’t mull over it. I’m confused that the government thinks about unnecessary issues,” he added.
Previously, the head of the Covid-19 mitigation task force, Doni Monardo, said that the government is open to the possibility of moving the Eid al-Fitr collective leave again to the Eid al-Adha holiday, which falls at the end of July.
The government had earlier hinted that the Eid collective leave was moved to December. “So there are two options to replace the leave days,” said Doni.
M ROSSENO AJI
