VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Erick Thohir, State Enterprises Minister, concurrently Executive Chairman of the Economic Recovery and COVID-19 Response Team. (ANTARA PHOTO/Adam Bariq/app/aww).

Indonesian State Enterprises Minister, concomitantly Executive Chairman of the Economic Recovery and COVID-19 Response Team, Erick Thohir called for the pace of economic recovery and the handling of COVID-19 to go hand-in-hand in the current scenario.

"I think in the context of today's situation, these two aspects must definitely go hand-in-hand," Thohir remarked while delivering a statement at the BUMN Ministry in Jakarta on Monday.

The minister cautioned to not misinterpret the new normal terminology in which people would go about their activities without restrictions and defying necessary adherence to health protocols to safeguard against the virus transmission.

Thohir believes that in the absence of discipline, the national economy would yet again be impacted if a second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic were to strike Indonesia.

Several businesses, including the film business and cafes, have yet to reopen in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) took the decision to merge the COVID-19 Task Force and Economic Recovery Task Force under the Coordinating Economic Affairs Minister Airlangga Hartarto’s leadership so that they match and function in concert, he stated.

As the new team’s executive chairman, he decided to hold a meeting with Doni Monardo, the COVID-19 Response Task Force head, and Budi Gunardi Sadikin, the Economic Recovery Task Force head, to hold discussions on the targets to be achieved through coordination for the application of their programs.

President Jokowi signed a government regulation on economic recovery and COVID-19 handling, including the formation of the new team. (ANTARA)

Jakarta Deputy Governor Ahmad Riza Patria on Sunday announced that the city’s transportation agency plans to add new bike lanes to match the increasingly popular mode of transport; bicycles. 

“The Jakarta transportation agency has regulated it. Not just the bike lane’s length, but also its width,” said Riza on July 19. 

He added that the additional bike lanes are the government’s appreciation towards the surging trend among bicycle users amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. He also mentioned the exponential growth of bike sales that reached 1,000 percent. 

“We appreciate society that is starting to take interest in cycling,” said the deputy governor. “In principle, we are trying to give our best, especially for pedestrians and cyclists.”However, he reminded new cyclists to always remain vigilant as they commute across Jakarta’s urban environment as he hopes cycling would improve from being a hobby to essential means of transportation. (tempo.co)

One at a time countries in the world has steadily surpassed China - the first to report the worldwide epidemic - in terms of reporting the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases. Indonesia comes as no exception after on early Monday morning the Johns Hopkins University reported that  Indonesia racked up a total of 86,521 confirmed cases. 

According to the Johns Hopkins University world map coronavirus counter on July 20, this effectively ranks Indonesia 25th directly above China - which currently reports 85.314 cases in total. 

The United States of America remains to be the country that has been hit the hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic with a total of 3,760,975 cases. While Brazil and India that has ranked second and third recorded 2,098,389 and 1,077,781 cases respectively. 

On July 9, Indonesia recorded a record-breaking 2,657 COVID-19 daily cases when China still recorded 84,950 cases. The three most devastated countries with the highest number of the death toll due to the virus that reportedly first broke out from Wuhan, China are the United States (140,474), Brazil (79,488), and the United Kingdom (45,385). (tempo.co)

Indonesian Home Affairs Minister Tito Karnavian, in an official Youtube video on Sunday, explained three scenarios that would help end the COVID-19 pandemic which according to the minister, was discovered after he randomly surfed the internet and googled “how pandemic ends.”

The three scenarios, according to Tito Karnavian’s internet search, include mass-vaccinations, herd immunity, and the natural viral weakening due to mutation. He opined about the first scenario:

“Clearly, the first scenario [the pandemic would end] is the discovery of a vaccine. But the question is that who can guarantee when the vaccine would be found,” said Tito Karnavian from the Home Affairs Ministry’s official video that is originally a video to justify the decision to keep on holding the 2020 Simultaneous Regional Elections (Pilkada). (tempo.co)