Luhut Plans To Ban New Year Celebrations To Anticipate Rise In COVID-19 Cases

ILLUSTRATION ANTARA

JAKARTA - Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan said the government plans to ban New Year celebrations that have the potential to cause large crowds, as an effort to anticipate an increase in cases during Christmas and New Year's momentum.

"On this occasion, in the midst of the increasing number of cases in Europe and several other countries that continue to be high, I again invite all of us not to be selfish and encourage each other so that we can both obey the health protocols that are constantly being advised so that we don't repeat the same. bad experiences in the past due to our negligence," said Coordinating Minister Luhut Pandjaitan in a written statement quoted by Antara, Monday, November 15.

The government is also preparing various scenarios to anticipate the potential increase in cases due to Christmas and New Year.

This readiness includes aspects from both a health and economic perspective. According to the Java-Bali PPKM Coordinator, success in containing the increase in COVID-19 cases during the Christmas and New Year periods will determine the sustainability of our economic recovery going forward.

The Deputy Chairman of the Committee for Handling COVID-19 and National Economic Recovery (KPC PEN) explained that until now the government continues to find conditions on the ground which show that public awareness of complying with health protocols is decreasing day by day.

This, according to him, is very worrying in the face of the potential increase in mobility and confirmed cases of Covid-19 during Christmas and New Years.

"Therefore, in welcoming Christmas and the upcoming New Year, the government will coordinate to tighten the use of the PeduliLindung application and its main health protocols in crowds. In addition, the government will continue to accelerate the acceleration of vaccination, especially vaccination of the elderly in areas with general and the elderly vaccination rates are still below 50 percent," said Coordinating Minister Luhut.

Not only that, the government, he continued, will also continue to strengthen testing and tracing activities by the TNI/Polri and find active cases, as well as admitting positive patients into centralized quarantine to prevent spread at the family level.

"What we have been fighting for together so far deserves to be maintained and not forgotten just because of our boredom and selfishness," said Coordinating Minister Luhut Pandjaitan.