Long Holiday At The End Of October, Doni: No Need To Leave The City, It's Better To Clean Up The Environment

Chairman of the Task Force (Task Force) Handling COVID-19, Doni Monardo (Photo: Doc BNPB)

JAKARTA - Chairman of the COVID-19 Task Force (Satgas) Doni Monardo asked the public to be careful in welcoming the long holiday at the end of October amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

He even appealed to the public not to need to travel out of town and spend long holidays at home to prevent an increase in the number of positive cases of COVID-19.

"If you don't need to go out of town, you should just stay at home," Doni said in a press conference broadcast on the BNPB YouTube account, Wednesday, October 21.

According to the Head of the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB), holidays will still be fun without having to leave the city. Moreover, there are many activities that can be done at home, from watching television to cleaning the environment, which can be useful for increasing awareness of nature.

"There are many activities that keep us entertained at home. Watching movies on television and doing activities around the house such as social work cleaning the gutters after all this time we have not done anything to nature, clean the environment, and plant trees," he said.

Moreover, cleaning the environment is important considering that Indonesia is facing the natural phenomenon of La Nina which causes weather anomalies. In addition, the La Nina effect also makes people more dangerous if they travel to the open air which at any time can cause whirlwinds to tide.

"La Nina has no small risk for people who live in the open. One day there can be tornadoes, heavy rains, places that have high risk should be avoided. Including beaches that at certain times will cause tidal waves," he said.

"Once again, we cannot fight nature, what we can do is adapt to natural conditions," he added.

It is known, 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 will be carried out. So there is no change," Muhadjir said in an online press conference broadcast at the Presidential Secretariat YouTube account, Monday, October 19.

Previously, President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) had also reminded his staff to prevent a massive addition of COVID-19 cases in the community during the long holiday at the end of October.

"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 world's active cases.

"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 death 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 that 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.