Underprivileged Residents Can Smile, Jokowi Will Distribute COVID-19 Medicine Next Week

Indonesian President Joko Widodo (Photo: Setkab)

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo plans to distribute medicine packages for COVID-19 patients who come from underprivileged groups.

To realize this, the Emergency PPKM coordinator, the Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment (Menko Marves) Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, held a coordination meeting to prepare it.

During the meeting, Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin suggested to Luhut that the government should finalize the types of drugs distributed.

"We need to finalize the package again because it has not been synchronized with the medical professional organization, so there is no resistance related to this drug package," Budi said in a meeting, quoted Monday, July 12.

Then, Deputy for Investment and Mining Coordination of the Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs, Septian Hario Seto, said that the target for drug distribution was COVID-19 patients who were self-isolating.

"Preference is given to those with a low socio-economic background," he said.

In response, Luhut hopes that the availability of medicines to meet the needs of COVID-19 patients can be met.

Furthermore, Luhut emphasized that the condition for obtaining treatment drug assistance for COVID-19 patients from the government was to show the results of a PCR swab test.

"My advice is that later 2,200 doctors, who are recruited and coordinated by the Task Force (TNI Head of Health Center) led by the TNI Commander, can manage all these flows," he continued.

In response, TNI Commander Hadi Tjahjanto, who was also present at the virtual coordination meeting, stated his party's readiness to develop a mechanism for recording, distributing and socializing the drugs.

"For sub-districts and villages, we will of course continue to coordinate with doctors and village midwives to educate patients, and Babinsa will also help later," said Hadi.