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Jokowi’s pandemic gamble
While it is too early to judge the President’s strategy, the conventional wisdom among doctors and epidemiologists is that it is far from enough to protect the people.
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he government has said that it will not impose large-scale social restrictions (PSBB), let alone a total lockdown, on the capital and other provinces on Java even though a second wave of COVID-19 infection is now overloading hospitals across the island.
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo insists that the micro-scale public activity restrictions (PPKM Mikro) is the right strategy for Indonesia, asking regional governments to tighten the PPKM Mikro to slow down the spread of the deadly virus and to provide some space, however limited, for business activities.
The President has consistently shown his aversion toward lockdowns, saying in January that he was thankful that Indonesia “did not have to” impose such a policy. For a lockdown is financially costly (the 2018 Health Quarantine Law states that the government is obliged to provide food for people in need during quarantine) and will only hurt the economy. He is thus on the same page with former United States president Donald Trump, who also opposed the measure because “the cure cannot be worse than the problem itself”.
The other reason why Jokowi shuns lockdowns is that he is optimistic that Indonesia will be able to expedite the mass inoculation program and achieve herd immunity soon enough to end the second wave. He has already set a target for Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan to have most of the city’s population vaccinated by August.
While it is too early to judge the President’s strategy, the conventional wisdom among doctors and epidemiologists is that it is far from enough to protect the people.
The capacity of many hospitals on Java is already stretched to the limit. Some hospitals in West Java and Central Java have already set up tents to cater for coronavirus patients. Others have reported bed occupancy rates of between 70 and 100 percent. Meanwhile, there is no sign the second wave will subside soon. On Wednesday, the country posted another record daily caseload, with 15,308 new cases. In the past three days, the virus has killed at least 930 people. The actual numbers are probably higher given the low testing rate.
Experts have called on the government to take drastic measures by imposing the PSBB or even a lockdown to flatten the curve of infection, which is key to preventing the nation’s healthcare system from collapsing. They argue that the PKKM Mikro policy, which is being implemented at the neighborhood/community level, has proven ineffective, considering that the policy was already in place before the recent case surge.
Moreover, they have also cast doubt on the government’s ability to achieve herd immunity this year given the uncertainty of vaccine supplies.
Despite all the criticism, the President has stuck to his guns, saying on Wednesday that the PPKM is essentially the same as a lockdown. It is now left to us—particularly the local communities in the “red zones”—to do what is possible to ensure that the President’s strategy works, or a tsunami of COVID-19 will continue to rip through our nation, killing more of our fellow citizens, friends and relatives, and plunging us into a prolonged, unbearable economic recession.
