TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
‘Not effective’: Jokowi bemoans poor enforcement of virus restrictions
"We have to be blunt; it’s not effective,” the President said.
Change Size
President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo receives his first COVID-19 vaccine dose on Jan. 13. (instagram/@jokowi)
P
resident Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has expressed dismay over what he considers the lackluster enforcement of public activity restrictions (PPKM) intended to curb the spread of COVID-19 in Java and Bali over the past month and has urged all stakeholders to redouble their efforts to contain the virus.
The President expressed his concerns during a meeting with state officials on Friday, criticizing the authorities’ apparent lack of seriousness and consistency in imposing PPKM.
“Regarding PPKM, […] we have to be blunt; it’s not effective,” he said in a video of the meeting uploaded to the Presidential Secretariat’s YouTube channel on Sunday.
“Mobility is still high, according to the mobility index. Therefore, several provinces have continued to report rising COVID-19 numbers.”
The President’s statement stands in stark contrast to his earlier assertion that the government had the situation under control – made not long after the imposition of the first round of PPKM, which lasted from Jan. 11 to 25.
Read also: Better risk communication needed as Indonesia surpasses 30,000 COVID-19 deaths
The government has since extended the restrictions in parts of Java and Bali for two weeks, from Jan. 26 to Feb. 8, in response to persistent increases in COVID-19 cases, which recently surpassed 1 million in the country.
