“I received a report last night from the deputy head [of the national COVID-19 recovery committee] and the health minister [Terawan Agus Putranto] mandating that the treatment meet the ministry’s standards,” Jokowi said in a virtual meeting with members of the national COVID-19 and economic recovery committee on Monday.

He said that uniform treatment of COVID-19 patients would be mandatory in intensive care units, isolation wards and quarantine facilities.

The President said the move would help turn the tables in the country’s favor as it fought mounting COVID-19 cases.

“[This standardization] is of the utmost importance, so we expect that the number of fatalities will continue to decline and that the number of recoveries will continue to improve,” Jokowi said, as quoted in a statement issued by the Presidential Secretariat.

Indonesia's COVID-19 mortality rate had declined to 3.77 percent as of last month, Jokowi said. However, he noted that it still hovered above the global fatality rate of 3.01 percent.

Jokowi also emphasized the importance of community-based interventions in the ongoing mitigation efforts, urging regional heads throughout the country to impose small-scale restrictions in the event of an outbreak to quickly curb the spread of the virus.

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