Indonesia should not follow in the footsteps of the US because in Indonesia the prevention and control of the COVID-19 pandemic is still important

Illustration. (Photo: Unsplash)

JAKARTA - United States President Joe Biden stated that the COVID-19 pandemic had ended in his country. This was conveyed amidst the fact that the death rate from COVID-19 is still very high in the United States.

The United States' stance was followed by several other countries such as Germany and the Netherlands which also declared the end of the pandemic in their countries. Even Vietnam and Thailand are following in the footsteps of the United States.

By declaring that the COVID-19 pandemic has ended, all matters related to social restrictions have begun to be removed. This actually created a new problem where COVID-19 cases have increased again.

As reported by the John Hopkins University website, in the second week of November 2022 there were 19,693,926 new cases and 77,519 deaths due to COVID-19.

Now Germany and Japan are still the countries with the highest number of cases of COVID-19 in the world with 1.4 million cases within 30 days.

South Korea holds the second position with an additional 1 million cases of infection and an additional 858 deaths. Next is the United States, which was the first to declare it free from COVID-19.

But in fact, the United States is facing an increase in COVID-19 cases of more than 1 million cases in the past month.

After announcing that the COVID-19 outbreak had been declared over, several countries such as the Netherlands, Germany, and the United States were re-organizing their economies which had been devastated by the outbreak.

But until now there has been no significant change to the economic order since the decision to end the outbreak was made. Especially the Netherlands, which is currently experiencing a fairly severe economic crisis.

In an interview conducted by CNBC Indonesia with the Dutch Ambassador to Indonesia H.E Lambert Grijns, it was revealed that high inflation in the Netherlands triggered an energy and food crisis at the same time.

PPKM Cancellation in Indonesia Will Trigger New Problems

In October 2022, President Jokowi stated that there was a possibility that shortly the COVID-19 outbreak could be declared over by the Indonesian government. But this is not entirely true.

In response to this, experts have warned the Indonesian government to remain vigilant. Former Director of the World Health Organization (WHO) for Southeast Asia, Tjandra Yoga Aditama, has urged the government to continue to implement PPKM and be alert if the status of the COVID-19 outbreak is revoked from a pandemic to an endemic.

"The virus will always exist in the community even though it doesn't have a significant impact. Many things and characteristics of COVID-19 are not yet known and will only be answered along with technological developments in the future", he said, quoted on Wednesday, November 30.

The Indonesian government, through the Indonesian Ministry of Health, has again appealed to the implementation of booster vaccines for residents who have received the complete primary dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Given that the pandemic is still sweeping the world, and more and more variations of COVID-19 are emerging, Indonesia must be more careful in canceling Community Activity Restrictions (PPKM) and urging more people to get vaccinated, including booster vaccines.

This is to protect all Indonesian citizens from all possibilities that might occur. Considering that the variants of the COVID-19 virus are very diverse and the pandemic is not over yet. For this reason, the cooperation of all related parties is needed to make it happen.