Luhut: Don't Politicize The COVID-19 Problem, Don't Add Problems To 'Soldiers' Who Have Been Working For 1.5 Years

JAKARTA - The number of COVID-19 cases in the country has continued to increase in recent times. On Wednesday, July 14, it broke a record high of 54,517 since the first case was discovered on March 2, 2020. Even so, the Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan requested that this case not be politicized.

"So don't politicize this. Please don't. This is a humanitarian issue. If you have a heart, don't be politicized. The more you realize that these kinds of things can take the lives of other people and many people around us have left because of that, which we know," he said in a virtual press conference, Thursday, July 15.

Luhut said, in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, the government listened to input from various parties, including medical professional associations, professors, and professors. Therefore, he requested that all parties not look for each other's shortcomings.

Furthermore, Luhut said that in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic in the country, all parties to the soldiers had worked. So, he asked that this case not be politicized for political interests or popularity.

"So don't just make it there, don't do it because everyone is tired. I repeat, we are all tired. Those fellow soldiers below are tired they have been working on for 1.5 years. So let's not add more problems because of our political interests, "In the interest of our popularity, we should not take popularity from human problems. I will leave that to you once again," he said.

In addition, the Java-Bali Emergency PPKM Coordinator emphasized that the government was not arbitrary in making decisions. Because, said Luhut, the government uses three indicators to measure and monitor developments.

"There are three indicators that are used to be combined into one composite indicator. Facebook Mobility, then there is Google Traffic, there is light intensity at night from NASA and NOAA. We use this so that we can measure to deal with this delta variant. here, no," he said.

Previously, Luhut acknowledged that there was an increase in COVID-19 cases during the Implementation of the Emergency Community Activity Restrictions (PPKM) which took effect from July 3 to July 14.

"There has been an increase during PPKM's 44.51 percent. So yesterday's 54 thousand I think this is the highest number," he said in a virtual press conference, Thursday, July 15.

Furthermore, Luhut said the increase in cases did not only occur in restrictions on activities through Emergency PPKM, but also during PSBB volumes I and II, district/city PPKM and Micro PPKM.

"Everything is relatively up, but still under control," he said.

The coordinator of the Java-Bali Emergency PPKM said the spike in COVID-19 cases in the country was due to the delta variant. As is known, this variant spreads faster than the alpha variant.

"This increase in COVID-19 cases is dominated by the delta variant. So almost everything in Java, if I may not say, yes, everything is controlled by the delta variant. According to what I read, this delta variant is more or almost 6 times faster than the alpha variant, or the PSBB I and II," he explained.

"So we face different enemies. Different enemies, this of course we with the existing resources, yes we face but it's not easy," he continued.