VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

President Joko Widodo (Jokowi)  has appealed to the public to always wear masks while carrying out indoor and outdoor activities since the COVID-19 pandemic is not over.

"I also want to remind all of us that COVID-19 still exists, therefore wearing a mask is a must while carrying out indoor and outdoor activities," he said at the Istiqlal Mosque here on Sunday.

President Jokowi and First Lady Iriana Jokowi performed  Eid al-Adha prayer 1443 Hijri at the Istiqlal Mosque on Sunday morning.  He then reminded local, city, district and provincial governments as well as the army and police to continue working on booster vaccinations.

"Especially for cities with quite high community interaction. I still remind local,   city, district and provincial governments as well as the army and police to continue to carry out booster vaccinations because this is really needed," the President added.

The President asked the public to remain  cautious as the COVID-19 pandemic is not over yet.

"While  the BA.4 and BA5 variants are still spreading in all countries. Alhamdulillah, the number of cases of these variants in our country is still under control. The number of cases in some of  other countries is  still around 100 thousand per day. That's what we need to be aware of," said the President.

On May 17, 2022, President Jokowi said that the government eased the  policy on the use of masks in open areas, considering  that the COVID-19 pandemic was  under control.

Based on data from the COVID-19 Task Force as of July 9, 2022, the total number of confirmed positive cases in Indonesia increased by 728, bringing the total to 6,108,729 . Meanwhile, the number of active cases in Indonesia reached 19,855 .

The number of people recovering from COVID-19  increased by 1,973,  taking the total to 5,932,089. With the addition of four deaths, the death toll from the COVID-19  increased  to 156,785 since the pandemic hit Indonesia in March 2020.

Meanwhile, the vaccination coverage  rate reached 201,740,862 for the first dose,  169,278,449 for the second doses and 51,648,769 for  the third doses.

That means that the booster vaccination rate is only about 24.5 percent of the total vaccination target.

However, Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin has estimated that the COVID-19 cases in Indonesia will peak in July 2022, when the dominance of virus variants is already above 80 percent of the total population.

Moreover, 81 percent of the total COVID-19 cases in Indonesia are BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants, while 100 percent of COVID-19 cases in Jakarta are BA.4 and BA.5. (antaranews)