Main Expert Staff to the Presidential Staff Office (KSP), Donny Gahral Adian ((ui.ac.id)

The Presidential Staff Office has asked the public to maintain discipline and abide by the health protocols to support efforts to prevent a second wave of COVID-19 infections in Indonesia.

"The most important thing in the new normal era is discipline and obedience of the public towards health protocols," said Main Expert Staff to the Presidential Staff Office (KSP), Donny Gahral Adian, at a virtual discussion on Saturday in Jakarta.

He said he believed there needs to be supervision, dissemination of information, enforcement and regulations regarding the protocols, otherwise, it would become challenging to ensure people follow health measures in a disciplined manner.

Habits that are being encouraged now were never or rarely adhered to under normal circumstances, for instance, wearing masks, washing hands religiously, and avoiding physical contact, he noted.

Such measures, he said, were often overlooked in normal times, but they need to become a daily habit in the new normal era.

"I think this is important because, without compliance and discipline, and supervision and enforcement (of protocols) by the central and regional governments together, it is feared that Indonesia could see a second wave of COVID-19,” he cautioned.

President Joko Widodo had earlier expressed the hope the spread of COVID-19 would continue to decline in the country through efforts to discipline the public to comply with health protocols, as stipulated in the guidelines for Large-Scale Social Restrictions (PSBB).

The President said the rate of COVID-19 transmission, as measured by the Reproduction Number (R0), had dropped below one in several provinces of Indonesia.

The President plans to massively mobilize the National Military (TNI) and Police (Polri) forces to encourage the public to comply with the health protocols.

He said the enforcement of health protocols and the deployment of TNI and Polri officers would be carried out in four provinces and 25 districts and cities that have implemented the PSBB to break the chain of COVID-19 transmission. (ANTARA)