Sandiaga Uno Warns Against Relaxed Covid-19 Restriction 'Euphoria'

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Tourism and Creative Economy Minister Sandiaga Uno warned people against the euphoria following the loosened public activity restriction (PPKM). The recent level 3 restriction imposes less community mobility restrictions, which comes after regions in Indonesia recorded a dropping number of Covid-19 cases. 

“The drop in Covid-19 cases shows a good development and we should be thankful. IN the future we must prepare for reduced PPKM restriction levels that are not followed by euphoria,” Sandiaga Uno wrote in a statement on August 31. 

The minister warned members of the public to remain alert against possible future covid-19 surge caused by the new variant and cited countries such as the United States and India that faced a wave of new transmission cases caused by the delta variant. 

His concerns are justified as latest data shows tourism sites seeing a surge in visitations across tourism sites after the public restriction was relaxed. 

In a limited meeting between President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and Ministers on August 30, the government claims there are improvements across a number of Indonesian regions and also claims that the country’s positivity rate had dropped to 8 percent.

The Indonesian government is eyeing to further reduce the Covid-19 transmission rate below 5 percent.

Read: Sandiaga Uno Introduces Virtual Tours of 10 Tourist Villages

FRANCISCA CHRISTY ROSANA