Madiun City Government Closes Cafe Violating New Year's Eve Prokes

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MADIUN - The Madiun City Government COVID-19 Task Force Team, East Java, temporarily closed a cafe for violating health protocols while operating on New Year's Eve 2022.

Head of Satpol PP and Madiun City Fire and Rescue, Sunardi Nurcahyono, said the cafe that was temporarily closed was called Kafe Wow on Jalan Cokroaminoto, Madiun City.

"After we looked into it again, it did meet the elements of a violation. We gave the cafe an administrative sanction of temporary closure for the next seven days starting January 1, 2022," said Sunardi, quoted by Antara, Sunday, January 2.

According to him, the Wow Cafe management was found to have violated the prokes rules set by the Madiun City Government in accordance with the Madiun Mayor's Instruction (Inwal) Number 34 of 2021 concerning the Prevention and Control of COVID-19 at Christmas and the 2022 New Year in Madiun City.

Inwal said that the operating hours for night entertainment venues, malls, shopping centers, and culinary businesses were limited to 22.00 WIB during December 24, 2021 to January 2, 2022, including a maximum capacity limit of 75 percent.

Meanwhile, Wow Cafe on December 31, 2021 on New Year's Eve 2022 was found to be still open until after 22.00 WIB.

"Not only did it exceed operating hours. The cafe also violated the maximum capacity limit of 75 percent. When the Mayor came to the location, the cafe was full of visitors," he said.

He explained that sanctions were not immediately given. His party again carried out an in-depth examination after violations were found during a raid led by the Mayor of Madiun Maidi on New Year's Eve.

Sunardi added that the cafe had actually been visited by the sub-district COVID-19 Task Force Team to be given a warning. Not long ago the Mayor of Madiun Maidi together with forkopimda visited the location for conducting raids and monitoring. The Mayor of Maidi gave a warning to the cafe manager because the visitors exceeded 75 percent capacity and were still open.

"According to the rules, the maximum is only 75 percent. But yesterday was very crowded. With such conditions it would be difficult to implement health protocols, especially maintaining distance," he explained.

The mayor immediately took decisive action with a temporary closure. In fact, the number one person in Madiun City has instructed the closure for up to 10 days.

Sunardi added that his party immediately followed up on the mayor's instructions and the findings of the violation. Sanctions for violations can be in the form of administrative sanctions and fines.

"To determine sanctions, we must go through an in-depth examination. So we don't immediately impose sanctions. This is a shared learning so that other places of business obey the rules," he said.