Emergency PPKM Extended to 5 Days; Govt Explains
Translator
Editor
21 July 2021 18:08 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo on Tuesday, July 20, announced that the emergency state of public activity restriction or Emergency PPKM was extended until July 25, 2021. The 5-day extension was taken based on certain considerations.
“Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment has said that the drop in new cases can be seen 12-21 days after the restriction [is enforced],” said the Coordinating Ministry’s spokesman Jodi Mahardi on Wednesday, July 21.
Jodi said the decision was taken based on the calculation that the policy had run since July 3, 2021. On July 26, Jokowi planned to relax the restriction as long as the number of cases can continue to decrease.
The Covid-19 handling task force reported that the addition of daily cases tended to drop in the last few days. On July 20, there were 38,000 new cases, which decreased from the previous week’s average data of 50,000 cases. However, the figure was obtained from a much lower number of specimens.
The task force’s spokesman Wiku Adisasmito confirmed that the number of specimens being examined was getting smaller. He suspected two reasons behind the drop. “The lower number of tests taken on weekends or a delay in data input from the laboratory to the data system,” he said.
Wiku said the government is committed to increasing the capacity of tracing, testing, and treatment (3T) as efforts to contain the Covid-19 pandemic by coordinating and facilitating regional governments to achieve their targets based on the instruction of the Home Affairs Minister.
Read: Emergency PPKM Extended, Jokowi Allocates Rp55.21 Trillion for Social Aid Budget
EGI ADYATAMA