Govt Continues COVID-19 National Emergency Status

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Indonesian government reportedly will maintain the national emergency status of the COVID-19 pandemic despite the end of the same status declared by the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) on May 29, 2020. 

Previously, President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo passed the Presidential Decree (Keppres) No. 12/2020 on the declaration of emergency status for the COVID-19 non-natural disaster on April 13.

Hence, the status of national emergency will refer to the Presidential Decree N0. 12/2020. “So long as the Keppres is not revoked, the status is still valid,” said National COVID-19 Mitigation Task Force Head Doni Monardo in a written statement on Friday, May 22.

The emergency status highly depends on two key factors. First, the ongoing transmission of COVID-19 that causes deaths, material losses, wider affected areas, and its implications for the social economy sector.

Viewed from the transmission context, the national task force recorded a hike in the number of positive cases as of May 21. Besides, the surge within the past month indicated local transmission, which means the more virus infections are detected, the more local transmission exists.

The second factor that affected the national emergency status is the global situation as the World Health Organization (WHO) has issued the global pandemic status.

“As long as the global pandemic is not yet ended and vaccines and cures have not been discovered, the national emergency status of COVID-19 is still needed,” Doni remarked.

The emergency status, he added, showed that the country was present to protect its people surely and consistently from the danger of COVID-19.

ANDITA RAHMA