Faisal Basri: The Government's Strategy To Handle The Spread Of COVID-19 Is Just Waiting For The Vaccines To Arrive

JAKARTA - University of Indonesia Senior Economist Faisal Basri said he was worried about the handling of COVID-19 in the country. The reason is, the government is only focused on economic recovery without paying attention to the number of cases of transmission which is getting higher every day.

Faisal said it was impossible for the economy in Indonesia to recover if the transmission of COVID-19 cases continued to increase. He said the key to driving economic activity was to increase the COVID-19 test to all people in Indonesia.

"I am afraid that the government's response will be increasingly indifferent to COVID-19, (only) concerned with economic recovery as reflected in Presidential Decree number 82 of 2020," he said at a joint hearing with Commission VI at the DPR Building, Jakarta, Monday, 31 August.

In Presidential Regulation Number 82 of 2020 concerning the Committee for Handling COVID-19 and National Economic Recovery, said Faisal, there is only one health element in it, namely the Ministry of Health. The rest is economic and political defense.

Looking at the structure of the COVID-19 and PEN Handling Committee, it seems that Indonesia is only more inclined to restore the economy. Meanwhile, health problems are not the main focus.

"In the past, the task force under the current president was under Minister of BUMN Erick Thohir. Indeed, handling this virus is more towards the economy," said the INDEF economist.

Faisal regretted that in handling the health of COVID-19 the government was only waiting for a vaccine to be found. Without doing a strategy to reduce the increasing number of transmission.

"The narrative that is always conveyed by the chief executive is now waiting for the vaccine. So before the vaccine came we did not know what the government was doing, there was no strategy. Just waiting for the vaccine. And this vaccine is not necessarily effective," he said.

In fact, said Faisal, if the cases of COVID-19 transmission decreased, then economic growth would automatically increase. Therefore, the main focus should be on the health sector.

"We have to control the transmission of cases first, then the economy can go up. If cases have decreased, automatically economic growth without prompting will also increase," he said.

In addition, Faisal assessed that the government's steps were less rapid than the transmission of COVID-19. This is because the number of COVID-19 tests, both rapid tests and PCR, is still very small compared to other countries. For example, in comparison to Singapore and Malaysia, which have begun to be transparent by conducting mass tests every day.

"Let's see now Singapore and Malaysia have very low cases. He continues to do testing. India, which has a population of billions, per day testing is 1 million. We almost never have 20,000," he said.