Market Traders Are Worried About Contracting COVID-19 And There Are No Buyers Because The Grass Market Is A Location For Isolation

Illustration-Governor of DKI Jakarta Anies Baswedan (Photo: Twitter @aniesbaswedan)

JAKARTA - Chairman of the Information and Communications Division of the Indonesian Market Traders Association (IKAPP) Muhammad Ainun Najib admitted that he had received many complaints regarding the government's plan to make the Pasar Grass Flat as a location for COVID-19 isolation in Jakarta.

It is known that the Pasar Grass Flat is located right above the market managed by the BUMD Perumda Pasar Jaya. Ainun Najib said traders were worried that they might catch COVID-19.

"There are many reports from traders to the IKAPPI DPP which are quite large and quite a lot, there are concerns," said Ainun Najib in his statement, Friday, July 9.

Therefore, Ainun Najib asked the local government to find a solution so that there would be no impact from the spread of COVID-19 after the Grass Market Flat became a place of isolation for people exposed to COVID-19.

"We ask the government to strengthen health protocols in the grass market and its surroundings," said Ainun Najib.

"Then, minimize the meeting between COVID-19 suspects and market traders. There must be zoning and areas to allow trading as comfortably as possible," he added.

In addition, Ainun Najib is also worried about the decline in merchant turnover due to the lack of buyers at the Grass Market. It is feared that buyers are afraid to come to the market because it is a place of isolation for COVID-19 patients.

"We ask the government to find a solution to the decline in market turnover because the effect is that the market will be quiet because buyers do not dare to come to the grass market. Or, a zoning shift from this trading place to the prepared trading place," he explained.

Previously, Jokowi conducted a review of the Grass Market Flats. He said 2,060 beds in the Pasar Rumput Jakarta Flats were ready to be used by COVID-19 patients without symptoms or with mild symptoms to carry out isolation.

"Earlier after we checked tower 1, 2,060 beds were ready to be used," he said as shown on the Presidential Secretariat's YouTube, Wednesday, July 7.

Not only that, in the next two or three days there will be 5,950 beds that are also ready to be used for COVID-19 patients to self-isolate.

Thus, when a spike in cases occurs, the government has prepared beds for patients without symptoms or with mild symptoms.

"Then towers 2 and 3 with 5,950 beds will be ready in 2-3 days. We hope that if there is a spike, we will have readiness," he said.