Khofifah Reports Downward East Java COVID-19 Cases, Jokowi: I Still Ask You To Be Careful

President Jokowi (Photo: BPMI Presidential Secretariat)

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo received a report from the Governor of East Java Khofifah Indar Parawansa regarding the COVID-19 case and the bed occupancy ratio (BOR) specifically for COVID-19 in his area continued to decline.

Weekly COVID-19 cases in East Java decreased by 4,407 cases. Then, the isolation BOR has now dropped to 42 percent and the ICU BOR 59 percent.

However, Jokowi still asked Khofifah and the district/city governments in East Java to be careful about the transmission of COVID-19 in their area. Moreover, currently new variants of COVID-19 continue to emerge.

This was conveyed by Jokowi in a briefing to the East Java Forkopimda in Madiun on August 19, 2021.

"Okay, the BOR is going down, active cases are going down, but I still ask everyone to be careful, be vigilant about this thing called COVID. Don't let a new variant come because it mutates and we are not alert, it suddenly explodes into a very large number ," said Jokowi on the Presidential Secretariat's Youtube channel, Friday, August 20.

Jokowi reviewed the development of COVID-19 cases that occurred over the last few months. He said that daily COVID-19 cases had fallen to around 3,500 per day on May 18.

However, cases began to increase again starting in Kudus and Bangkalan. Until finally, the increase in cases also occurred in other areas such as in Jakarta, Indramayu, to Medan.

"It appeared elsewhere because this item was not visible. (The case) immediately jumped to 56,000. In fact, the team on my left and right, 'Sir, if you can't stop this, August will appear at 80,000, September it will be 160,000 if it's not clear. can stop it, it can be above our India'," said Jokowi.

"So that at that time I conveyed to the TNI Commander and the National Police Chief, there was no other work. What was there was to stop this, don't jump 80,000 to 160,000. Again, be careful about this," he continued.

Therefore, Jokowi hopes that all regional heads in East Java are responsible for the development of cases in their respective regions. In addition, Jokowi also asked the Pangdam and Kapolda of East Java to immediately transfer patients who are self-isolating to centralized isolation.