In The Midst Of A Pandemic, The Government Affirms Joint Leave As Scheduled

Coordinating Minister for PMK Muhadjir Effendy (Photo: Irfan Meidianto)

JAKARTA - The Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture (Menko PMK), Muhadjir Effendy emphasized that the government will not change the schedule for joint leave which will fall on October 28 even though currently the COVID-19 pandemic is still happening.

"Regarding the issue of leave and holidays for the Prophet Muhammad SAW 2020, first a limited cabinet meeting in accordance with the president's direction stipulates that leave and holidays in connection with the Prophet's Birthday commemoration will still be carried out. So there is no change," said Muhadjir in an online press conference broadcast at the Presidential Secretariat YouTube account, Monday, October 19.

Even so, the former Minister of Education and Culture (Mendikbud) requested that the holiday and joint leave activities do not increase the number of COVID-19 cases.

So, later the Ministry of Home Affairs (Kemendagri) will coordinate the local government to make policies to suppress additional cases and the Ministry of Health and the COVID-19 Handling Task Force will emphasize so that cases of transmission of the virus during long holidays do not occur.

"Don't let (this long holiday, red) be a factor in the increasing number of cases and also the increase in the COVID-19 problem," he said.

Previously, President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) reminded his staff to prevent a massive addition of COVID-19 cases in the community. This was conveyed by Jokowi in a limited meeting to anticipate the spread of COVID-19.

"Today we will talk about the anticipation of the spread of COVID-19 in connection with the long holiday at the end of October 2020. Given that we had the experience of a long holiday of 1.5 months ago after which there was a rather high increase," Jokowi said when opening the meeting limited broadcast on the Presidential Secretariat YouTube account, Monday, 19 October.

He invited his ministers to develop a number of strategies together so that long holiday and leave activities would not have an impact on the increase in COVID-19 cases.

Moreover, based on data as of October 18, the average active case in Indonesia is lower than the active case in the world.

"Active cases in Indonesia are 17.69 percent. This is lower than the world average of 22.54 percent. This is very good," said the former Governor of DKI Jakarta.

Meanwhile, for the current recovery rate in Indonesia, the number has reached 78.84 percent which is also higher than the world recovery rate, only around 74.67 percent.

"Then, compared to last month, the average mortality rate in Indonesia also decreased from 3.94 percent to 3.45 percent. Once again, this has decreased from last month," he said.

So that, reflecting on this figure, he hopes his ranks of ministers will immediately prepare various strategies to welcome the upcoming long holiday. "We need to discuss this so that the long holiday and collective leave activities do not cause an increase in COVID-19 cases," he said.