Jokowi To BPUM Recipients: Lockdown Doesn't Guarantee Problem Solved

President Joko Widodo (Photo: RI Cabinet Secretariat)

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo said that implementing a lockdown or regional quarantine was not the best way to deal with the pandemic. According to him, the COVID-19 problem is not necessarily finished if a country is locked down.

He conveyed this to the recipients of the presidential assistance for productive micro enterprises (BPUM) in the courtyard of the State Palace, Central Jakarta.

"We can imagine the lockdown, and we can't guarantee that with the lockdown the problems can be solved," Jokowi said in a Youtube video broadcast by the Presidential Secretariat, Friday, July 30.

Jokowi emphasized that the government always carries out health control during the pandemic. However, the economic side must also proceed slowly. Therefore, the restriction policy adopted is PPKM.

"We can't close the lockdown like other countries. Lockdown means a complete closure. Yesterday, Emergency PPKM was in a semi-lockdown. It was still semi-locked, I entered the village, I entered the area, everyone screamed to be opened," he said.

Therefore, with the provision of BPUM, Jokowi asked all business actors to maintain their business because of restrictions on activities in PPKM.

Jokowi asked business actors to wait for the economic recovery to run optimally, while the government carried out the COVID-19 vaccination program to achieve herd immunity.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we have to work even harder with a situation like this, survive with all our might even though the turnover has fallen to 75 percent, up to half, we must continue to work because we are still in the process of getting to 70 percent vaccination," said Jokowi.

"We hope that, God willing, by the end of this year we can finish it. If it is 75 percent, at least the transmission of this virus will be somewhat hampered if communal immunity or herd immunity has been achieved," he continued.