Jokowi Hints at Ending Coronavirus Social Restriction at Year's End

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo at the Indonesian Economic Outlook 2022 event on Wednesday hinted at revoking the coronavirus social restriction known as the PPKM and PSBB policies. He believes the pandemic restriction could no longer take effect as daily cases continue to stagnate. 

“Likely at the end of the year we can declare a stop on the PSBB (mass-scale social restriction) and PPKM,” said the President on December 21. 

During the event, the President’s speech also touched on the matter where he refused to implement a total lockdown, going against advice from state ministers and the general public. At the time the Delta variant was detected in Indonesia, the country logged 56,000 daily cases.

“At the time I remember nearly 80 percent of State Ministers, and the public, suggested imposing a lockdown,” he recalled. 

In the economic event, he believes that the situation would be different from what it is today if he tended towards imposing a total lockdown. “If we did it at the time, it would be a different story today,” he said. 

Jokowi asserted that he is grateful that the handling of the coronavirus pandemic was done in a calm and composed manner even though there were deficits in supplies of health workers’ PPD, medical oxygen, and the influx of patients at a myriad of hospitals. 

“Thankfully we remained calm and not nervous,” said Jokowi.

He asserted that daily coronavirus cases have dropped to an average of 1,200 cases and believe the pandemic is much more under control compared to the initial days the virus arrived in Indonesia. 

FAJAR PEBRIANTO

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