Government Encouraged To Extend And Strengthen Emergency PPKM

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JAKARTA - The implementation of Emergency Community Activity Restrictions (PPKM) to reduce the number of positive COVID-19 cases will be evaluated before being extended because it will end on Tuesday, July 20.

Even so, experts ask that the restrictions should be extended even though their implementation so far has only been strong on paper.

Epidemiologist from Australia's Griffith University Dicky Budiman reminded the government if the Emergency PPKM needed to be extended. In addition, the government must also strengthen before the restrictions fail to prevent the increase in COVID-19 cases in the country.

"This Emergency PPKM needs to be extended, it needs to be strengthened. It has not failed but has not been effective. So what the government has to do is strengthen it," said Dicky to VOI, Thursday, July 15.

He said that this Emergency PPKM was very necessary even though its implementation had not been proven to be strong in the field. Moreover, without restrictions on community activities, he believes that more people will get sick or die.

"So the worst case scenario could be if PPKM (Emergency, ed) is not carried out," said Dicky.

Even so, he mentioned the implementation of the Emergency PPKM policy which is still not optimal. One of them is in an effort to strengthen testing where currently 500 thousand tests per day have not been achieved.

In fact, hundreds of thousands of such testing should have been carried out by the government since the beginning of this year. "Now it should be 1 million testing (per day, ed)," he said.

So, he asked the government to continue to improve the implementation of testing, tracing, and treatment or 3T to deal with COVID-19.

In addition, the government feels the need to regulate policies that are still in charge. For example, enforcing work from home or Work From Home (WFH) 100 percent. This needs to be done to suppress the spread of COVID-19 cases, which are getting crazier lately.

"WFH is only 100 percent, right (now, ed) it's half-hearted too. So what we haven't strengthened, including this, must also be strengthened, he said.

Meanwhile, Spokesperson for the Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, Jodi Mahardi, confirmed that the government would evaluate it before making a decision to extend the Emergency PPKM.

"We are still waiting for the Emergency PPKM which is still valid until July 20. Before that day, we will evaluate whether the Emergency PPKM will be extended or not," Jodi told reporters, Wednesday, July 14.

Furthermore, he said his party had also carried out an evaluation of the implementation of Emergency PPKM in Java-Bali so far. The latest data compiled by his side is as of July 11-12, the decline in the mobility of residents who are the targets of this restriction continues to occur.

However, it was noted that there were still a number of areas that experienced increased mobility, such as in the North Coast (Pantura), West Java Province, and Central Java. Jodi hopes that before the Emergency PPKM ends, mobility in the area and a number of other areas can decrease.

"We hope that in the next few days, there will be an increase in the number of areas whose mobility declines from minus 20 to minus 30 percent," he concluded.