Indonesia Not in Hurry to Decide Endemic: President Jokowi

TheIndonesia.co - President Joko Widodo said the government did not want to rush in determining the transition period from the COVID-19 pandemic to the endemic situation. The government will remain cautious and vigilant so that Indonesia does not experience a high trend of transmission of cases, such as during the peak of cases of the Delta and Omicron variants of COVID-19.

"There are stages, we don't need to be in a hurry because whatever we have, we have experience with what Delta was like, what Omicron was like; so we must be careful, we must be vigilant," said the President in Jakarta, Monday, April 25, 2022.

This was conveyed by Jokowi when answering a question regarding the potential for a transition from a pandemic to an endemic period if there was no spike in cases after the Eid homecoming 1443 H.

He added that it would take at least six months to prepare for the transition from pandemic to endemic. He didn't want Indonesia to immediately relax health protocols, such as allowing people to take off masks even though COVID-19 cases had dropped dramatically.

"I don't want to be like other countries, immediately take off the mask. There must be a transition of about six months. We'll see what it looks like. Only later, please take off your mask outside the room, if you are still wearing a mask indoors, there are stages, " he explained.

During Ramadan and Eid Al-Fitr 1443 Hijri, the Government allows people to travel back and forth on the condition that they have received a complete dose of COVID-19 vaccine and a booster dose, as well as implementing health protocols. This policy was determined by the Government by considering that the case of COVID-19 transmission in Indonesia continues to be controlled and the mitigation policy is adequate.

"Indeed, we allow going home because we see that the daily case numbers are indeed low, the active cases are below 20 thousand. But, whatever, there is a transition period that we must be careful about," said the President.