HEALTH

Jokowi signals end to entire Covid-19 restrictions

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo on Wednesday indicated that his government will lift all social
restrictions related to Covid-19 that have been in place for nearly three years, suggesting that the
country is now well-equipped to deal with the ongoing pandemic. Speaking at a seminar on the
Indonesian economic outlook in Jakarta, the president said that the number of daily cases is no
longer a threat to the national health system in comparison to the tens of thousands of cases a day
during its peak. “Yesterday, the daily number was recorded at 1,200 and maybe at the end of the
year we will declare an end to PSBB and PPKM,” the president said, referring to the Indonesian
acronyms for large-scale social restrictions and people’s activity restrictions that began in April
2020. The daily tally hit a record high of 64,718 cases on February 16 triggered by the Omicron
variant. The country of 273 million people has recorded 6.7 million cases and over 160,000
deaths since the pandemic began. “We must remember the hardships we have gone through. We
remember that we lacked of personal protective equipment and oxygen and hospitals were
overwhelmed,” Jokowi said. The president also recalled how most of the cabinet members
advised him to impose a total lockdown, which he refused due to economic considerations. “I
remember that almost 80 percent of ministers suggested that I impose a lockdown, also some
elements of the society urged the same thing. Had we done that, it would have been a different
story today,” the president said. (JG)