VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment (Menko Maves) Luhut B. Pandjaitan at the PPKM Press Conference which was held virtually, Monday (21-02-2022) - 

In handling the Covid-19 pandemic, several countries have begun to implement easing policies, namely from the pandemic to endemic transition. However, the Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment (Menko Maves) Luhut B. Pandjaitan revealed that for Indonesia itself it would be more prudent to apply the principle of prudence.

“Although several other countries have started to implement easing policies for transition to endemic, such as the UK, Denmark, and Singapore, we don't need to be talkative like these countries. We will carry out this transition gradually, in stages, and continuously based on data based on health, economic, and socio-cultural indicators, and continue to apply the precautionary principle. We will continue to evaluate the pre-endemic conditions in the future," said Coordinating Minister Luhut at the PPKM Press Conference which was held virtually, Monday (21-02-2022).

Coordinating Minister Luhut explained, in this case the government uses pre-endemic conditions as a foothold by using indicators, namely high levels of community immunity, low case rates based on WHO indicators, adequate response capacity of health facilities and using active surveillance.

According to a release received by Voice of Indonesia on Monday (21/02/22), this pre-condition must also occur in a fairly long time span and be stable or consistent. Proposed concepts, criteria, and indicators for pandemics to endemic from time to time will continue to be refined with experts and experts in their fields. To be able to achieve the goal of transitioning from pandemic to endemic, the main thing that needs to be done is to boost the second and main booster doses of vaccination for the elderly.

"The government also continues to encourage and ask for assistance from the Regional Government and its staff to continue to actively socialize and maximize the number of booster vaccinations for those who already have a third vaccine ticket. I also ask that people who already have a third vaccine ticket or who have been fully vaccinated within a 6-month period can go directly to the vaccine outlets that have been prepared," he explained.

On this occasion, Coordinating Minister Luhut also revealed that the government will reduce the mortality rate by providing a faster response to treatment for groups with comorbidities.

“In today's limited meeting (ratas), the President asked that the risk of death for the elderly, people who have not been vaccinated and have comorbidities to be minimized as much as possible with good treatment. For this reason, the Government will immediately take mitigation steps from this President's directive," he said.

Therefore, Coordinating Minister Luhut continued, the government encourages data interconnection between BPJS Health which has comorbid data and data on additional cases in the Ministry of Health's NAR, so that if there are additional cases, it is immediately detected whether the person is comorbid or not, and response actions can be taken quickly.

Coordinating Minister Luhut revealed that several regencies/cities had returned to levels 4 and 3. The increase in levels was due to the increase in hospitalizations in the related regencies/cities.

"Although we have followed the PPKM Assessment Level which we have adjusted by giving greater weight to hospital inpatients, currently there are several regencies/cities entering Level 4. 3 of them Solo Raya and Semarang Raya. The agglomeration areas of Jabodetabek, Bali, DIY, Greater Bandung, Greater Surabaya, and Greater Malang are currently still at Level 3," he explained.

“The increase in the assessment level in each of these areas is due to the increase in hospitalization rates. The details regarding this regulation will be stated in the Inmendagri which will be issued this afternoon," added Coordinating Minister Luhut.

With these data, Coordinating Minister Luhut again reminded that what we need to do today is to continue to maintain a healthy lifestyle, ensure that we are vaccinated, and adhere to health protocols.

"I also need to reiterate based on our data that those who are infected with this variant and have severe symptoms to death are identified as people who have not been vaccinated or have been vaccinated but not yet complete, have comorbidities, and are elderly," concluded Coordinating Minister Luhut//VOI-NK