Traditional Markets Not Ready Yet to Use PeduliLindungi App: Minister

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Trade Ministry ran a trial for the use of the government’s COVID-19 app PeduliLindungi at 14 public markets in Jakarta, West Java, and Central Java. The app has been used in malls and supermarkets as an entry requirement.

“It turns out that they are not ready to use this application,” said Trade Minister M. Lutfi in a press conference in Jakarta, Friday, September 17.

Lutfi explained that in one of the markets, Sederhana Market in Bandung, West Java, only 8.2 percent of the traders have received COVID-19 vaccines.

If we forced the use of the app, he argued, it would mean the same as we close the markets. The ministry thus concluded that the app could not yet be applied at traditional markets.

On this basis, Lutfi said in the next one to two days, his ministry would cooperate with the Health Ministry to accelerate COVID-19 vaccinations at traditional markets.

However, the ministry did not plan to relax the rule by allowing traders to use printed vaccination certificates to operate at the market, instead of the app.

Lutfi recalled that the ministry had conducted studies. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of visits and the traders’ revenue plummeted by 30 percent. Yet they found that traders who opened online stores saw a hike in profit by up to 40 percent. 

Based on the findings, Lutfi was determined to encourage traders at traditional markets to use digital apps to gain more profits, in addition to using PeduliLindungi.

Read: Task Force Comes Up with Solution for People Who Can't Use PeduliLindungi

FAJAR PEBRIANTO