Jokowi: It Is Very Difficult To Handle The Health And Economic Crisis Simultaneously And Precisely

President of the Republic of Indonesia, Joko Widodo. (Photo: Doc. Setkab)

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) said that throughout 2020, all countries in the world, including Indonesia, felt the severity of difficult times due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This is because the pandemic has not only hit the health sector, but also has an impact on the economic sector.

"The health and economic crises must be resolved at the same time, between gas and brake must be carried out appropriately, this is not easy. It is not so easy. Handling health and economy are equally important, they are equally strategic," he said at the event 'Economy Recovery: How to Accelerate Economic Growth', Wednesday, 27 January.

In order for the health and economic sectors to run simultaneously, said Jokowi, the government has prepared a short-term strategy, namely vaccinating COVID-19 en masse and as quickly as possible. This strategy is implemented to start in 2021.

"Vaccination is one of the priority policies and the government wants to work quickly to obtain hundreds of millions of vaccine doses amid the dominance of developed countries in getting vaccines," he explained.

Jokowi said, to support the vaccination program, the government has designed well-prepared infrastructure, data and vaccinators.

"Now we already have approximately 30 thousand vaccinators and others. We are working on this vaccination as soon as possible to catch up on what is called communal immunity, herd immunity," he said.

Despite having a short-term strategy, namely vaccination, Jokowi emphasized that 3T, namely testing, tracing, and treatment as well as health facility preparedness, must still be prepared.

"The disciplinary movement of health protocols continues, 3M discipline using masks and others must be intensified. There must be synergy between elements starting from the top structure in the province, governors, regents, mayors, to the lower levels of village heads, small neighborhood/large neighborhood, all must be involved so that we can really strengthen the discipline of health protocols," he explained.