Message From Sri Mulyani's Subordinates To Calm Down: Reflecting On The Experience Of Other Countries, Omicron's Risk Can Be Handled

Illustration (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - The government through the Ministry of Finance (Kemenkeu) is optimistic that the risks posed by the omicron variant can be managed better than the delta variant that emerged in mid-2021.

Head of the Fiscal Policy Agency (BKF) Febrio Kacaribu said the assumption was based on the experience of a number of countries that had experienced the omicron wave earlier than Indonesia.

"We have understood from the start that the escalation of the Omicron case will be faster. If we study from many countries that have passed the peak phase, we can see that cases in Africa have started to decline in recent weeks. Likewise in America, which had reached 1 million daily cases, now it has dropped by around 200,000," he said in a virtual discussion, Thursday, February 10.

According to Febrio, the Omicron case this time was not immediately responded to by a very strict social restriction policy. This condition is said to be quite beneficial because it allows people's mobility to remain strong so that the economic side is not under pressure.

“Many countries have responded less stringently than yesterday's delta. This can be seen from the daily number of cases which jumped rapidly but did not raise the restriction level as high as before. This is also a lesson for us, which can be seen from the PPKM level 3 policy in Jakarta with some easing," he said.

Furthermore, Febrio explained that the State Budget had been prepared to deal with the surge in cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19.

"Given the severity of Omicron is lower than delta, the strengthening of health clusters is directed at integrated isolation, massive drug distribution, and acceleration of booster vaccines," he stressed.

In addition, the distribution of social protection will be accelerated to the community, such as accelerating the disbursement of PKH in the first quarter from the previous in the second quarter. Then, the distribution of the basic food card program for 1.8 million recipients is IDR 200,000 each in February 2022.

For information, the government itself allocates the 2022 National Economic Recovery (PEN) budget of 455.62 trillion.

This amount is divided into three clusters. First, the handling of health Rp122.5 trillion. Second, community protection amounting to Rp. 154.8 trillion. And the third is strengthening the economic recovery of Rp. 178.3 trillion.