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COVID-19: Nearly 78,000 police to guard transition to Indonesia's 'new normal'
The police officers have been deployed primarily to ensure public discipline and compliance with the COVID-19 health protocols.
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Police officers observe physical distancing during roll call on April 8, 2020 at the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle in Jakarta. (JP/Dhoni Setiawan)
T
he National Police have deployed 77,897 officers across the nation to guard the transition to the government's so-called new normal phase, during which all citizens are required to abide by the COVID-19 health protocols to prevent wider spread of the disease.
Police officers have been deployed to areas across all four levels of the government's zoning system based on local infection rates, from the zero-risk green zones to the high-risk red zones, said National Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Awi Setiyono.
“We have deployed 7,550 personnel to green zones, 8,981 personnel to yellow zones, 35,830 personnel to orange zones and 25,536 personnel to red zones,” he said on Tuesday, as quoted by tempo.co.
According to the COVID-19 national task force's June 21 data, the country currently has 57 areas categorized as red zones. Among these, East Java – the new epicenter of the national outbreak since June 26 – has the highest number of local red zones, comprising 13 cities and regencies.
Meanwhile, 157 cities and regencies are now categorized as orange zones with moderate risk of COVID-19 transmission, and 188 regions are yellow zones with low transmission risk.
Read also: Major regions still classified as red zones despite claims of improvement
The remaining 112 areas are green zones that have been declared either free of the virus or have not recorded any new cases in the past four weeks, with a 100 percent recovery rate.
The nationwide deployment follows National Police chief Gen. Idham Azis' decision last week to revoke the edict banning mass gatherings issued on March 19.
Although the ban has been lifted, the National Police said that it would continue in an assisting capacity to ensure public discipline and compliance with the COVID-19 protocols during the new normal phase.
“We will continue to support multisectoral cooperation in controlling the pandemic and disseminating [the health protocols] to the public,” Awi said.
President Joko Widodo earlier stressed the role of the National Police and the Indonesian Military in guarding crowded places in preparation for the new normal “to make sure [that] society continues to abide by the health protocols".
According to published government data, Indonesia has 55,092 confirmed cases to date, with 2,805 deaths and 23,800 recovered cases. (trn)
