Speaking At The Opening Of The National Chamber Of Commerce And Industry, Jokowi Reminded Not Only To Take Care Of The Economy But Also Health

President of the Republic of Indonesia, Joko Widodo. (Photo: Doc. Setpres)

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) officially opened the VIII National Meeting of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) in Kendari, Southeast Sulawesi today. On that occasion, Jokowi reminded not only to take care of the economy in the midst of a surge in COVID-19 cases.

"Everyone must be vigilant. Don't just talk about the economy, the economy, but don't look at health. But also don't just look at health, health, health but also don't look at the economy. Both must go hand in hand," he said at the opening of the VIII Kadin National Conference, Wednesday June 30.

Jokowi admitted that this is a very difficult and not easy time for the business world as well as the national and global economy. Because, it is not easy to solve the problem because it is not only a matter of economic affairs but also health matters.

"Moreover, in the last weeks there has been a very high spike in the spread of COVID-19 in our country, Indonesia," he said.

The development of active cases in Indonesia, said Jokowi, in late January to early February had increased to penetrate 176,000 cases. However, in mid-May it slowly fell to 87 thousand cases.

"But when there was the Lebaran holiday yesterday, plus today we went up, the jump more than doubled to 228 thousand. This is what I have to say, we must be careful. We must remain vigilant, we must not be careless," he said.

According to Jokowi, daily cases must continue to be studied because it cannot only work on the macro but the micro details must be known. Including, the position in which the case moves. He said this was to anticipate a spike in cases like in India.

"India once in 2020 was at 50,000 active cases, experts then dropped to 9,000 cases per day and at the end of January and early February it rose exponentially from 9,000 to 370,000 per day, a very exponential jump. Currently India has also fallen to 50,000 cases per day. day, we learn from there," he explained.

As is known, the last few weeks the number of COVID-19 cases in the country has continued to increase. On 27 June the daily case broke through 21,342. This is a record since the first case was discovered on March 2, 2020.