VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Feb. 5 - President Joko Widodo's discussion with five governors on handling the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic concluded that reducing the infection rates were paramount to successfully handling the pandemic, Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin stated.

"Yesterday, Mr. President invited five governors to discuss about the COVID-19 pandemic. I happened to be requested to accompany him and see how we share our experiences in handling the pandemic," Sadikin remarked here on Thursday.

The invited governors are Anies Baswedan from Jakarta, Ridwan Kamil from West Java, Ganjar Pranowo from Central Java, Sultan Hamengkubuwono X from Yogyakarta, and Wayan Koster from Bali.

Sadikin affirmed that China and India were able to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. Several cities in the administrative areas of the five governors are also able to tackle the pandemic.

"We conclude that the best way to handle the pandemic is reducing the infection rates," he emphasized, adding that by doing so, the burden on hospitals could be well-managed, so that they could be prepared for conducting the vaccination program.

Thus, the main mission of Indonesia's collective fight against the COVID-19 pandemic was reducing the infection rates. In this regard, several action programs were implemented, such as "Jogo Tonggo" and "resilient village", he remarked.

Action programs, such as "Jogo Tonggo" in Central Java, "resilient village", and "alert village," that were implemented in various rural areas in Indonesia were deeply rooted in Indonesia's unique culture.

"The programs are appropriate to help reduce the COVID-19 infection rates since they are implemented at the micro level, such as in families and neighborhoods," he stated.

As of February 4, 2021, Indonesia had witnessed the addition of 11,984 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the national tally to 1,111,671 cases, while the number of new recoveries reached 9,135, thereby bringing the total count of people fully recovering from coronavirus to 905,665.

Indonesia's death rate was recorded at 30,770 after 189 other people succumbed to the disease over the past 24 hours.

The Indonesian government has been grappling to win the battle against the global pandemic of COVID-19 since it announced the country's first confirmed cases on March 2, 2020.

The government has not only enforced the public activity restriction policy in the Java and Bali Islands since January 11, 2021, but also conducted a national vaccination program that commenced on January 13, 2021.

Since January 26, 2021, Indonesia's COVID-19 infection rate had exceeded one million cases following President Widodo’s official announcement of the country's first COVID-19 cases in March. (Antaranews)