Prohibited Homecoming, Chair Of The COVID-19 Task Force: Don't Objection, Meyesal Later

Chairman of the Task Force for Handling COVID-19 who is also Head of BNPB Doni Monardo (DOK Humas BNPB)

JAKARTA - Head of the COVID-19 Task Force and Head of BNPB Doni Monardo emphasized that people are prohibited from going home this year. If there are residents who object, then they will regret it.

"Not going home. Do not go home. Don't have any objections. I will regret it later," said Doni at the Coordination Meeting for Handling COVID-19 with Bengkulu Provincial Government officials in Bengkulu, Friday, April 16.

With this ban on going home, Doni admitted that he did not want the number of COVID-19 transmission to increase again. Moreover, the existence of friendly meetings held by the community then caused the transmission of COVID-19 and ended in a high mortality rate.

"We don't want the gathering to end in a very tragic way. Losing the people we care about. Losing the people we love. Don't let this happen, "said Doni.

The government officially bans Eid homecoming this year, just like the previous year. This was decided based on a coordination meeting between a number of ministries and agencies. This homecoming ban will start from May 6 to May 17, 2021.

This homecoming prohibition applies to all ASN, TNI, Polri, BUMN employees, private employees, independent workers, and also the entire community.

President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) also reiterated that the government has prohibited people from going home on this year's Eid or Eid Al-Fitr holidays. This is done to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the community.

"Since long ago the government has decided to prohibit homecoming on this Eid," said Jokowi in a video broadcast on the Presidential Secretariat's YouTube account.

He explained that the ban on going home has also been taken with various considerations. Because, based on previous experience, long holidays are one of the moments that often increase the number of COVID-19 cases in the country.

Jokowi said, in 2020, there were four long holidays that significantly affected the addition of COVID-19 cases. First, was during the Eid Al-Fitr holiday last year, where there was an increase in daily cases of up to 93 percent and cases of death by 66 percent.

"The second increase in COVID cases occurred during the long holiday on August 20-23, 2020. Which resulted in an increase of up to 119 percent and the weekly death rate to increase by 57 percent," said Jokowi.

Next, the long holidays from 28 October to 1 November 2020 also contributed to an increase in COVID-19 cases by 95 percent and an increase in the weekly death rate of up to 75 percent.

"Finally, fourthly, there was an increase during holidays at the end of December 24 to January 3, 2021 resulting in an increase in daily cases reaching 78 percent and an increase in weekly deaths of up to 46 percent," Jokowi explained.