Jokowi Asks Not To Think That The Government Is Covering Information About COVID-19

President Joko Widodo (Photo: Twitter @jokowi)

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo emphasized that the government has opened information about the spread of the corona virus or COVID-19 to the public. He asked the public not to mention that the government was covering up any information related to the virus.

"Regarding open data communication, I have recorded information that is open to all parties," Jokowi said when opening a limited meeting regarding the report from the Task Force for the Acceleration of Handling COVID-19 which was broadcast on the official YouTube account of the Presidential Secretariat, Monday, April 20.

According to Jokowi, so far, the government has not covered up information about the spread of COVID-19 in Indonesia. Thus, the former governor of DKI Jakarta has asked that no one accuses the government of covering up the data.

"Let no one assume that we are covering up (information). There is nothing from the start that we want to cover the existing problem," he said.

Jokowi's statement contradicts his statement some time ago. He had said that there was some information about COVID-19 that could not be conveyed to the public so as not to cause panic.

"I say that the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to be of our concern. Indeed, we have something to say and some that we don't convey because we don't want to cause anxiety and panic in the community," Jokowi said on Friday, March 13 during a visit to the airport. Soekarno-Hatta, Tangerang, Banten.

At that time, he said, serious steps had been taken by the government. Moreover, at that time the number of cases in the country had reached 34 cases. However, to prevent panic all actions were not conveyed to the public.

"At the same time we do not want to create a sense of panic, do not want to create unrest in the community. Therefore, in handling we do not make a sound," he said.

One of the things that was not conveyed was regarding the patient's positive history in order not to cause panic and anxiety.

However, the policy changed. After more and more cases of COVID-19 in Indonesia, President Jokowi ordered his staff to disclose information about COVID-19.

The information that must be disclosed is the number of People Under Supervision (ODP), Patients Under Supervision (PDP) in Indonesia, and the number in detail of how many samples have been tested for polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in the laboratory.

"I ask that this information data be truly integrated. All Ministries are included in the task force so that all of the information is available," said Jokowi while chairing a limited meeting broadcast on the Presidential Secretariat's YouTube account, Monday, April 13.

The former governor of DKI Jakarta also asked for data on COVID-19 cases in Indonesia to be updated in real time and the information is more integrated than before.

"Once again, this integrated data concerns PDP, ODP, positive ones then recovered, who died, the number of PCR (-tests-) how many there are all of them and it is open. So that everyone can access this data properly," he said. .

Later, after President Jokowi's request, whenever the spokesperson for handling COVID-19, Achmad Yurianto, conveyed the development of the spread of the virus, he then mentioned the number of ODP, PDP, and the number of samples that had been tested through the PCR method.