President Urges Ministers to Focus on COVID-19 Active Cases Increase in Two Provinces

President Jokowi and Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung are engaged in a dialog before attending a Limited Cabinet Meeting on Report of COVID-19 Handling and National Economic Recovery Working Committee (KPCPEN), Monday (30/11), at the Merdeka Palace, Jakarta. (Photo by: Public Relations/Agung)

Minister of Home Affairs should urge regional heads to take full control in handling COVID-19 and economic recovery in their respective regions, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has said.

“I order Minister of Home Affairs to remind the governors, regents, and mayors to take full control in handling the pandemic and economic issues in their respective territories,” the President said at the Limited Cabinet Meteing on Report of COVID-19 Handling and National Economic Recovery Working Committee (KPCPEN), Monday (30/11), at the Merdeka Palace, Jakarta.

The President went on to say that the duty of the regional heads is to provide protection and ensure people’s safety, especially in the midst of the ongoing pandemic.

“Regional heads must protect and ensure the safety of their people. I have also said that people’s safety constitutes the highest law, with updated data on the number of active cases, recovery rates, death rates, and existing economic indicators,” he said.

Furthermore, the Head of State instructed Cabinet Ministers to pay special attention to Central Java and Jakarta Provinces that experienced a drastic increase in active cases.

“The number of COVID-19 active cases has significantly increased within 2-3 days,” the President said.

On that occasion, the President also called on his ranks to be careful and be alert of an increase on the COVID-19 transmission since there was an increase in active cases and a decrease in the recovery rate in Indonesia as of 29 November 2020.

“The country’s active cases have increased to 13.41 percent, higher than that of the global average. However, we should remain alert because the figure is higher than last week’s data. We recorded 12.78 percent of active cases last week,” he said.

According to the President, the recovery rate has also decreased from 84.03 percent per last week to 83.44 percent. “We are not improving because more active cases occurred in the past few weeks,” the President stated.

In the limited meeting, the President also called for reports on the preparation for COVID-19 vaccination. “Regarding the economy issue, I will ask for the updated data,” he added. (TGH/UN) (RIF/LW)