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Jokowi orders 'quick response' as COVID-19 spread shifts to regions
The President has called for regional administrations to mount a "quick response" against COVID-19 amid a shift in transmission pattern to areas outside Java and Bali.
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Officers of the Serang Police and soldiers from the local Indonesian Military (TNI) command check that motorists are complying with the health protocols, on Feb. 16, 2021 in Serang, Banten. The government has deployed the police and the TNI to assist with COVID-19 contact tracing across the country, particularly in areas deemed "high risk" for virus transmission. (Antara/Asep Fathulrahman)
P
resident Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has ordered a rapid and coordinated response through intensified testing and tracing and immediate isolation to contain COVID-19 in regions outside Java and Bali, where cases were soaring despite the public activity restrictions (PPKM) currently in place.
The President made the instruction at a virtual meeting on Saturday with several Cabinet ministers, the chiefs of the Indonesian Military (TNI) and the National Police, the heads of some regional military commands and police precincts, as well as representatives of regional administrations under PPKM level 4, the highest in the four-tier alert system.
Jokowi specifically ordered the military and the police to trace all close contacts of confirmed COVID-19 cases. The government recently enlisted the help of some 63,000 village-level noncommissioned TNI officers (Babinsa), along with officers of the police's security and public order unit (Bhabinkamtibmas) to assist with contact tracing efforts.
Read also: What’s wrong with Indonesia’s contact tracing?
The President said those who tested positive for the coronavirus should be transported to isolation centers to prevent further transmission. He also ordered regional officials to set up more makeshift isolation centers.
“We need a quick response, because the [transmission pattern] has shifted from Java-Bali to outside Java-Bali,” said Jokowi. “For the past two weeks, I have seen that the number of new cases are continuing to increase in provinces outside Java.”
He said that regions outside Java had reported around 21,300 new cases on Aug. 6 that accounted for 54 percent of the national tally, a significant increase from 44 percent on Aug. 1 and 34 percent on July 25.
