Jakarta COVID-19 Soars, PSI: Anies Baswedan Busy Managing Road Bikes And Political Safaris

DKI Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan (Photo: Instagram @aniesbaswedan)

JAKARTA - DKI Jakarta is facing a surge in COVID-19 cases after the Eid holiday. The chairman of the PSI faction of the DKI DPRD, Idris Ahmad, criticized the attitude of the Governor of DKI Jakarta, Anies Baswedan, who did not focus on dealing with the pandemic.

Idris considers Anies as if he is raising his hand in formulating a tightening of mobility policies and is too concerned with other things, such as providing special road bike lanes to political safaris ahead of 2024.

“Jakarta failed to anticipate an increase in cases. When the Covid-19 case exploded, Governor Anies even lost focus and was busier with road bikes and political safaris," said Idris in his statement, Wednesday, June 16.

In fact, according to Idris, Anies should focus on enforcing the micro PPKM rules so that there are no crowds or clusters in both residential and office areas.

In addition, the implementation of micro-lockdown in RTs that are in the red zone is also often ignored due to the lack of supervision. "It is useless to make rules if they are not supervised. It is not enough to just surrender to the residents," he said

Therefore, Idris asked Anies to cancel a number of out-of-town safari agendas and focus on making improvements so that the spike in COVID-19 cases could be suppressed.

"Don't let Governor Anies continue to lose focus and the number of spikes is getting out of control," he said.

Previously, DKI Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan said that currently, DKI has the potential to face the critical phase of COVID-19. The spike in active cases, which has risen significantly in recent weeks, has forced all parties to be more vigilant in preventing the capital city from entering the critical phase after the Eid holiday.

Based on last year's experience, if Jakarta enters the critical phase, the DKI Provincial Government must pull the emergency brake which will have an impact on the economy.

"The capital city is now in a condition that requires extra attention. If the current conditions are out of control, we will enter a critical phase, and if that phase occurs, then we must take drastic steps like what happened in September and February last year. We want that event to be not repeated," said Anies.

Jakarta's COVID-19 cases this week rose by 7,132 from last week's accumulated cases. There is also an increase in the occupancy of COVID-19 patients. As of May 14, 2021, the bed occupancy ratio (BOR) specifically for COVID-19 increased significantly.

The isolation bed capacity of 7,341 is filled by 5,752 or has touched 78 percent and the ICU of 1,086 is filled by 773 or 71 percent. In fact, as of May 31, 2021, the capacity of isolation beds in Jakarta is still at 33 percent and ICU at 36 percent.