Jakarta Deputy Governor Clarifies Weekend Lockdown Issues

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Jakarta Deputy Governor Ahmad Riza Patria said the city administration is open to any suggestion including the weekend lockdown.

He confirmed that, however, he could not yet issue a clear statement related to the idea of such local quarantine as applied by Turkey voiced by a member of the House of Representative (DPR) Saleh Daulay.

“That's a personal opinion. Anyone is allowed to offer input about efforts to handle Covid-19,” said Riza at City Hall on Thursday, February 4.

The deputy governor said the lockdown proposal is still being reviewed. However, the Jakarta administration must also consider inputs from the central government.

“We are waiting for the policy to be taken [by the central government], whether it is possible to enforce a weekend lockdown as suggested by Bung Daulay,” he said.

Meanwhile, an epidemiologist from the University of Indonesia, Tri Yunis Miko Wahyono, assessed that such a policy would not be effective in preventing coronavirus transmission in the capital. “Because the virus incubation period is around 7-14 days,” said Tri on Wednesday, February 3.

Tri went on to argue that the enforcement of lockdowns during weekends in certain regions of Java and Bali would not be effective since the restrictions of community activities or PPKM was not running optimally.

According to the epidemiologist, limiting the operational hours and the capacity of business sectors to 25 percent would bring a bigger impact so long it is applied strictly.

Read: Expert Predicts 240,000 Covid Cases in Jakarta by February; Suggests Lockdown

M YUSUF MANURUNG