Sri Mulyani Explains The Horror Of A Pandemic In The Future: COVID-19 Not The Last

JAKARTA - Minister of Finance, Sri Mulyani, believes that the current state of the COVID-19 pandemic, which is currently occurring in almost all parts of the world, is believed not to be the last outbreak.

"It is believed that the current pandemic situation will not be the last, and a new pandemic may occur in the future", she said during a public lecture webinar of the Faculty of Economics and Business, Padjadjaran University, Friday, September 3.

According to the Minister of Finance, the pandemic is a scourge that is quite worrying because it can harm all human life, both in terms of social, economic, and political.

“There are so many complex impacts. To this day, there is still tension about where this virus came from", she said.

In fact, he said that the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic problem in many countries was still not optimal, especially in terms of building cooperation in handling the virus.

“How to handle it, who produces the vaccine, who gets it, how can poor countries with no fiscal capacity get vaccines. Meanwhile, if this virus still exists, then it will continue to mutate. And if it continues to grow, the world will find it increasingly difficult to handle it", she explained.

"It is acknowledged that since March 2020 when WHO declared COVID-19 as a pandemic, the so-called global response has not occurred easily and is very complex. And it must also be admitted that the global response to this pandemic is still extraordinary and inadequate compared to the threats that continue to occur", continued the Minister of Finance.

For this reason, the state treasurer reminded the current condition is a valuable experience that can be used as a lesson in the future.

"We must learn from facing the current COVID-19 pandemic because the response and reaction to how to handle it can prepare us for the future", she stressed.

For information, Indonesia responded to the pandemic situation by allocating the National Economic Recovery (PEN) budget to the State Budget. Meanwhile, PEN funds for the 2021 period recorded an increase from the previous IDR 699 trillion to IDR 744 trillion in response to the delta variant spread in the middle of this year.

The government uses this amount of budget for various strategic programs, such as the cost of treating COVID-19 patients, spending on vaccines, incentives for health workers, providing social assistance, incentives for the business world, and various other priority programs.