COVID-19 Task Force Issues Circular To Strengthen The Minister of Home Affairs Instruction, Read More On Christmas-New Year Mobility Restrictions

ILLUSTRA TION BY VOI

JAKARTA - The COVID-19 Handling Task Force issued a circular letter to strengthen the Instruction of the Minister of Home Affairs Number 62 regarding the Prevention and Control of COVID-19 during Christmas 2021-New Year 2022.

"Later on, this instruction from the Minister of Home Affairs will be confirmed by a circular letter from the COVID-19 Task Force, the rules contained in the circular will include regulations for domestic travelers and optimizing the role of the task force at each administrative area level of every public facility," said the Coordinator of the Expert Team and Government Spokesperson for the handling of COVID-19 Wiku Adisasmito in a daily press statement quoted by Antara, Thursday, November 25.

Wiku said the current case had tended to be under control. However, caution is still needed considering that during Christmas and New Year, there is a tendency to increase the intensity of activities and mobilization

In addition, without regulations, the Christmas and New Year period, according to Wiku, has the potential to lead to a spike in cases, especially considering the behavior of people who often lack discipline while on vacation or visiting relatives.

The Minister of Home Affairs explains the arrangements in places of worship or churches, where houses of worship are asked to form a task force for accepting congregations in charge of supervising the discipline of health protocols.

The second is the arrangement for going home to control people's mobility and urges Indonesian Migrant Workers to delay returning home, considering that the condition of cases in several other countries is still not dynamic.

In addition, the prohibition of holding parades or processions as well as the prohibition of other events that are not the main series of worship, restaurants, and restaurants can only operate from 09.00 a.m. - 22.00 p.m. with limited visitor capacity.

"Local governments must also close all squares in their respective regions from December 31, 2021, to January 1, 2022," said Wiku.

Arrange for leave for the Christmas and New Year holidays by prohibiting the taking of leave rights for State Civil Apparatus (ASN), National Armed Forces (TNI), National Police (Polri), State-owned Enterprises (BUMN) and private employees.

Arrangements at local tourist attractions that will apply the odd-even system at tourist attractions. In addition, the operational capacity of tourist attractions is a maximum of 50 percent, and visitors are required to do screening with the PeduliLindung application.

The organizers of tourism activities are not allowed to hold celebratory parties that risk causing crowds.

Public mobility, in general, will also be regulated in an odd-even system at tourist attractions, requiring COVID-19 test results for travel and carrying out screening with PeduliLindung when entering public facilities.

Public facilities and other community activities will follow Community Activity Restrictions (PPKM) at level 3, including the elimination of cultural arts and sports activities to reduce crowds.

For areas where residents live, health protocol discipline will be carried out by "checkpoint" posts consisting of elements of the Civil Service Police (Satpol PP), TNI, and Polri.

Adjustments related to the education sector, schools are advised not to close schools during the Christmas and New Year periods, and set a period for distributing report cards in January 2022 to prevent the transmission of COVID-19 to children after traveling.

"Regarding the rules above, local governments are encouraged to adapt the directive points that are valid from December 24 to January 2, 2022, in their respective regional regulations. The central and regional governments will disseminate the regulations to the public," said Wiku.