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Jokowi to lift COVID-19 emergency status within two weeks
Following the recent removal of the country’s mask mandates, the last of its COVID-19 health protocols, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has said he will end the state’s COVID-19 health emergency status within two weeks.
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People take photographs in Ubud, a famous tourist destination in Gianyar regency, Bali, on May 6. (Antara/Fikri Yusuf)
F
ollowing the recent removal of the country’s mask mandates, the last of its COVID-19 health protocols, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has said he will end the state’s COVID-19 health emergency status within two weeks.
“We discussed this in a [Cabinet] meeting yesterday [on Tuesday] and decided to enter [the phase of treating COVID-19 as an] endemic,” Jokowi said on Wednesday, on the sidelines of an event in Jakarta. He said the lifting of the national emergency status would be officially “announced in the next one or two weeks”.
Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said after the Cabinet meeting on Tuesday that he had “just updated the President on the current pandemic situation in [Indonesia], other [Group of 20] countries, ASEAN countries, as well as alternative policies we can take [once the national emergency status is lifted”, kompas.id reported.
The President himself would announce the lifting of the emergency status, Budi said, adding that Jokowi was only “waiting for the right time” to do so.
Budi said people should learn to live with COVID-19 as an endemic disease and take their own health precautions against it, noting that the virus would not go away even when the status is lifted.
“Washing our hands and wearing masks – these are things that the public can still easily do,” Budi said, adding that rapid testing kits, medicines and vaccines were also now widely available in drug stores across the country.
Read also: Indonesia's airlines drop mask mandate
