Hoax Regarding The Jakarta Lockdown From February 12 to 15

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JAKARTA - There has been a broadcast message in the WhatsApp messaging application informing that DKI Jakarta will carry out a lockdown on February 12 to 15, 2021.

It was also stated that during the lockdown, all houses and businesses must close their doors shut and the residents could not leave. Those who violate will be subject to a fine and immediately carry out a COVID-19 swab test.

However, the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (Kemenkominfo) confirmed that this information was a hoax or misleading news.

"In fact, this information is a hoax. Until this document was prepared and released, there has been no official announcement regarding the implementation of the lockdown for the DKI Jakarta area", wrote the official statement of the Ministry of Communication and Information, Friday, February 5.

This is reinforced by the statement of Deputy Governor of DKI Jakarta Ahmad Riza Patria who emphasized that the DKI Jakarta Government will not implement a lockdown on weekends until the implementation of restrictions on community activities (PPKM) is over.

Currently, DKI is implementing restrictions on community activities phase two which has been extended from January 26 to February 8.

"We convey that DKI Jakarta is still implementing the restrictions on community activities phase 2, in which does not have a lockdown program on weekends", said Riza at PMI DKI, Central Jakarta.

Riza said that the lockdown issue at the beginning of the weekend was a personal proposal from the Member of Commission IX of the Indonesian House of Representatives, Saleh Partaonan Daulay. From there, Riza admitted to accepting the proposal with a prior assessment.

"For us the DKI Government, anyone can give good suggestions that are constructive. Never mind constructive suggestions, just criticism is okay", said Riza.

"So we as the provincial government, which of course also the central government must pay attention, analyze, study various input from the public whatever form it is", he continued.

Regarding the policy after the restrictions on community activities period ended on February 8, the Governor of DKI Jakarta held discussions with the DKI Regional Leadership Communication Forum (Forkopimda) and experts.