The Community Activity Restrictions Fails To Suppress COVID-19, PAN Party To Jokowi: Emergency PPKM? Try Implement Lockdown 3 Weeks First!

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JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo is rumored to be implementing the Emergency Community Activity Restrictions (PPKM) starting tomorrow, Wednesday, June 30, 2021. This policy was taken because the positive cases of COVID-19 in Indonesia have not decreased. On the other hand, COVID-19 is getting worse.

In response to this, Commission IX member Saleh Partaonan Daulay assessed that the government should make a breakthrough to suppress the spread of COVID-19. The reason is that the micro-scale PPKM policy that has been repeatedly implemented by the government has not been enough to suppress the transmission of the disease from the SARS-Cov-2 virus.

"I really think the government should make new policies or alternative policies that are truly considered capable of breaking the chain of spreading the COVID-19 virus", said Saleh, Tuesday, June 29.

The chairman of the PAN Party faction of the Indonesian House of Representatives (DPR RI) saw that the number of active COVID-19 cases had not shown a downward trend at all. In fact, the increase in cases in the country is even more worrying.

"Not to mention there are new variants that have emerged such as Alfa, Delta, Beta, there are Indian variants, there are English variants, there are African variants, there are Latin American variants, this is all worrying", said Saleh.

Therefore, the former chairman of Muhammadiyah Youth central leadership (PP) suggested that the lockdown could be an alternative policy to suppress the transmission of COVID-19. This is because the lockdown limits human interaction and forces people to stay at home.

"The lockdown will be tried first. Maybe it will be for two or three weeks. After that, it will be evaluated", said Saleh.

According to him, the lockdown policy does not need to be implemented nationally, but only at the district or city level. For example, he said, cities that are considered red zones can be locked down to suppress the transmission of COVID-19, such as Java.

If the problem is cost, Saleh assessed, the government still has funds to implement the lockdown. Later, the budget for the COVID-19 Handling Task Force in terms of health and economic recovery could be shifted to implement the lockdown.

"Once again, don't be afraid to apply what is called a lockdown", he concluded.