COVID-19 Treatment Must Refer to Health Ministry Standards: President Jokowi

President Jokowi chairs a limited meeting on the Report of COVID-19 Mitigation and National Economic Recovery Committee via video conference, Monday (29/8). (Photo by: PR/Rahmat)

Treating COVID-19 patients must refer to standards set by Ministry of Health, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has said.

“This is very important to reduce death rate and to increase recovery rate,” the President said in a limited meeting via a video conference on the Report of COVID-19 Mitigation and National Economic Recovery Committee in Jakarta, Monday (28/9).

According to the President, the country’s COVID-19 recovery rate stood at 73.76 percent, slightly lower than that of the global recovery rate at 73.85 percent.

As of 27 September, Indonesia’s recovery rate stood at 3.77 percent, a drop from that in the previous month at 4.33 percent, he added.

“Average rate of active cases is 22.46 percent, slightly lower than that of the global active cases at 23.13 percent. This needs to be improved,” he said, while reminding the Committee to adopt a local-based intervention strategy in tackling the spread of the virus.

“I need to reiterate that this local-based intervention should be disseminated to provinces, regencies, and cities,” he said, adding that effective restrictions on the micro scale, at the village, community unit (RW), neighboring unit (RT), office or Islamic boarding school level will be in place.

“Continued mini lockdowns will be more effective. (In implementing lockdown), do not generalize (it) to one city or one regency, let alone one province. This will hurt many people,” he said.

Regarding plan for COVID-19 vaccination for the public, the President said it must be planned in detail from the outset.

“Within two weeks, there must be detailed planning regarding when it will start, where it is located, who does it, and who will be vaccinated first. Everything must be well planned so once the vaccine is made available, we are ready to carry out the vaccination on the ground,” he said. (FID/UN)

Translator: Muhardi
Reviewed by: M. Ersan Pamungkas