Indonesia is slowly being able to control the Covid-19 pandemic that has struck for the last 2 years. Some rules have also been relaxed because the transmission of the virus continues to decline. However, the implementation of Community Activity Restrictions or PPKM is still being carried out.
According to the Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, the government is already planning to abolish the PPKM policy shortly.
However, his party will first listen to the arguments of experts in this field before taking a policy. However, the final decision remains in the hands of President Joko Widodo.
“Yes, it can be (immediately deleted), but later we will not be too… because actually, the number is already very low,” said Luhut at the JCC, Tuesday (24/5/22).
He added, “Yes, it is possible, but we will hear it later, the meeting first, maybe Saturday-Sunday we will have a meeting with the experts, which we will recommend to the president later.”
Luhut’s response could not be separated from the statement by the Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture Muhadjir Effendy who said the government opened up opportunities to stop PPKM which had been in effect since August 2021.
“If [the Covid-19 case] is under control, the PPKM period will continue,” Muhadjir said in his statement.
If we look back, Indonesia has implemented a tightening of community activities since April 10, 2020, more than a month since the first case of Covid-19 was announced by President Joko Widodo (Jokowi).
At that time, the tightening of a policy called Large-Scale Social Restrictions (PSBB), was different from the regional quarantine policy (lockdown) implemented by other countries in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Since then, the term PSBB has continued to change. Starting from the transitional PSBB, the implementation of Java-Bali Community Activity Restrictions (PPKM), micro PPKM, thickening of micro PPKM, emergency PPKM, to level PPKM based on regional assessments.
Now, the Indonesian government has stated that it is ready to make the transition from pandemic to endemic in line with the development of Covid-19 cases in the country which is increasingly under control.
Previously, Jokowi in the Plenary Cabinet Session at the State Palace, Monday (9/5/2022) emphasized, “The restriction is continuing. Please after this it is conveyed that the restriction will continue until we are sure that we can control this COVID 100 percent.”
Jokowi added that the addition of COVID-19 cases was “very low” with only 227 cases on Sunday (8/5/2022). However, he reminded us that active cases on the same day were still at 6,192.