The End of the Covid-19 Pandemic Is Getting Closer, the Minister of Health Will Meet WHO

Advertisement

Minister of Health (Menkes) Budi Gunadi Sadikin plans to meet with the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in March 2023 to discuss the end of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Budi plans to propose a short declaration time for the end of the Covid-19 pandemic to the WHO.

He asks for prayers so that the results of his discussions with the WHO align with the wishes of the entire Indonesian community.

“I’m going to meet with the WHO to discuss the end of the pandemic this month. Please pray,” he said when met at the Dhanapala Building of the Ministry of Finance in Central Jakarta on Monday (20/3/2023).

Their second meeting was scheduled after the Ministry of Health’s (Kemenkes) Level I officials met with representatives from the WHO in late February 2022.

In that meeting, he continued, the Ministry of Health received several recommendations regarding the declaration of the end of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, Budi did not provide detailed information about those recommendations.

“I have already spoken with the WHO once, and I will meet directly with Mr. Tedros. My colleagues have spoken with those under Mr. Tedros, and we have received input,” he explained.

In the same event, Coordinator for the Implementation of Community Activity Restrictions (PPKM) Outside Java Bali, Airlangga Hartarto, stated that Indonesia has entered the preparation stage for the transition to the endemic phase.

This was decided after the number of Covid-19 cases generally decreased since the PPKM was lifted in December 2022. As of March 17, 2023, the Covid-19 Handling Task Force reported that the national active cases reached 3,701, with a total accumulated confirmed cases of 6,740,727.

“The distribution of active cases is still dominated by Java Bali at 85.81 percent, while outside Java Bali is 14.19 percent,” he said.