Jokowi: 70 Percent Of East Java Residents Do Not Wear Masks

President Joko Widodo (Photo: Cabinet Secretariat of the Republic of Indonesia)

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) highlighted East Java Province, whose citizens still do not comply with health protocols. This was conveyed by the President during a limited meeting on handling COVID-19 at the Merdeka Palace, Jakarta, Monday, July 13.

Jokowi became aware of this after receiving a report on the reasons for the addition of positive cases in the regions led by Khofifah Indar Parawansa. This report was obtained by the President during a visit to East Java.

"I got a report when I went to East Java, their survey was that 70 percent of the people did not use masks," said Jokowi in a meeting broadcast on the YouTube account of the Presidential Secretariat, Monday, July 13.

Seeing this situation, Jokowi then instructed the relevant ministries, agencies and governments to intensify the national movement to discipline health protocols. This is because people have started to ignore health protocols.

Not only that, elements of the TNI, Polri, mass organizations, volunteers, community leaders, and campuses must also be involved. "All are moved to participate in this campaign and at the same time supervise," he said.

It is known, East Java is the province that contributes the most numbers of COVID-19 transmission. Based on data released by the task force to accelerate the handling of COVID-19 on Sunday, July 12, yesterday, there were 518 new cases in East Java Province and the number of recovered patients reached 207 people.

Meanwhile, on Saturday, July 11, East Java recorded 409 new cases and a total of 16,140 cases. This figure makes East Java the province with the most positive cases and beat Jakarta.

Returning to President Jokowi, it was the low level of public discipline that made him think about imposing sanctions on health protocol violators.

The Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture (Menko PMK) Muhadjir Effendy said that in the future there will be firm action for residents who are caught not wearing masks.

"Because of that, the President gave a direction that might be confirmed. Apart from socialization and education there are sanctions for violators of health protocols," said Muhadjir after a limited meeting.

However, he did not mention the sanctions that would be imposed considering the regulations would still be discussed further with the relevant ministries and institutions.

"In essence, the President sees the appeal and socialization as not sufficient," he said.

He then reminded the public to implement health protocols. "We hope that the public understand the appa that was conveyed by the president. This indicates the very high risk faced by Indonesia against COVID-19," he concluded.