Had Distributed Masks At The Rizieq Event, Now The Task Force Asked Those Violators Of Health Protocols To Take Action

JAKARTA - Spokesperson for the COVID-19 Handling Task Force, Wiku Adisasmito, asked local governments and law enforcement officials to take firm action against violations of health protocols such as crowd perpetrators.

This statement was made after the Head of the COVID-19 Handling Task Force Doni Monarto distributed 20 thousand masks to a mass of followers of FPI leadership, Muhammad Rizieq Shihab on Saturday, November 14.

"We ask the government and regional task forces, as well as law enforcement officials to enforce discipline and take firm action against anyone who violates health protocols. This is indiscriminately in accordance with applicable regulations," Wiku said in a Youtube broadcast by the Presidential Secretariat, Tuesday, November 17. .

Wiku views that people's safety is the highest law. Therefore, Wiku asks all parties to comply with the health protocols that have been determined by the government, as an effort to prevent the transmission of COVID-19.

Then, Wiku also reminded that efforts to handle COVID-19 can be done well if coordination between the government, society and various other stakeholders is carried out effectively.

He then explained the data that there was an increase in positive cases this week on a national scale by 17 percent, when compared to the previous week.

"This increase is quite significant compared to usual, if there is an increase in weekly positive cases only in the range of 5 to 8 percent so far," he said.

Wiku said the provinces that contributed to the highest increase in the number of new cases were DKI Jakarta, West Java, Central Java, Banten and Lampung.

"Please pay attention to this together. This is a development in a bad direction because positive cases continue to increase," he said.

For information, the neglect of the crowd at Rizieq Shihab's residence caused a disappointed reaction from many parties. This disappointment grew because of the attitude of the COVID-19 Task Force Chair Doni Monardo to distribute 20 thousand masks at the crowd event.

Doni is considered to be legitimizing the crowd. Regarding this, Doni apologized if there were a number of parties who protested about giving masks to the crowd at an event held by Rizieq.

The Head of BNPB admitted that his party had appealed to no crowd at the event held by Rizieq. However, unfortunately the masses who were present could not be limited.

"The Task Force itself provided mask assistance so that people could use masks after the notification step was not heeded, meaning that it would still be implemented," said Doni.

So, the final solution for the COVID-19 Task Force was to provide 20 thousand masks to the masses of Rizieq's followers. These masks are solely to provide protection to the people present so they are not exposed to COVID-19.

"You can imagine if there is no mask assistance, then someone is exposed to COVID, one another can infect, so the impact of the transmission process will be more and more, it will worry us more," he added.