Covid-19 Restriction Lifted after Study Concludes in January, Says Official

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The chairperson of the Covid-19 handling committee Airlangga Hartarto on Wednesday assured that the government’s plan to end the Covid-19 restriction or PPKM is still being discussed. He said the next two days will be used to evaluate the policy and report it to President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, who will then publicly announce the result. 

“The result of the study [will complete] in the third week of January,” said Airlangga, who also assumes the position of Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs on December 28. “Just wait until that day comes.”

As previously reported, during the Indonesian Economic Outlook 2022 event on Wednesday, December 21, 2022, President Jokowi hinted at revoking the coronavirus social restriction known as the PPKM and PSBB. He believed that 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 Wednesday, December 21, 2022. 

During his speech at the event, the President 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 recorded 56,000 daily cases.

Jokowi believed that the situation would be different from what it is today if he decided to implement a total lockdown, instead of imposing Covid-19 restrictions. "If we did it at the time, it would be a different story today," Jokowi said. "Thankfully we remained calm and not nervous," said Jokowi.

FAJAR PEBRIANTO

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