Coordinating Minister For The Economy Airlangga Hartarto Explains The Government's Efforts To Control Omicron

Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hartarto/Photo: www.Ekon.go.id

JAKARTA - The government continues to evaluate the development of Covid-19 cases and various efforts to control the pandemic. Moreover, in the last week, there has been an increase in Active Cases in all regions/islands in Indonesia. The government will always take steps to anticipate a spike in cases, and ask the public to remain calm and not panic.

Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto said that Indonesia's Effective Case Reproductive Rate (Rt) continued to increase, indicating a higher transmission rate. “In the past week, Rt rose higher to 1.13 and there was an increase across the Island. The government will continue to monitor and prepare mitigation measures so that this can be anticipated further," he said in a press statement after the PPKM Evaluation Meeting, virtually, Monday, February 14.

The proportion of active cases outside Java-Bali is still relatively low, namely 13.9% of the national active cases (49,166 cases out of 352,839 cases), but since January 24, 2022, it has experienced a significant spike. Trends in Daily Cases and Hospital Treatments (RS) in 10 provinces with the highest cases, show that although there has been a sharp increase in cases, hospitalization is still relatively low.

Meanwhile, in 15 districts/cities outside Java-Bali with the highest cases also showed the same thing, although the spike in cases was quite high (in fact, 4 districts/cities were already higher than during the Delta period), but hospitalization was still relatively low and under control.

The National Bed Occupancy Ratio (BOR) is still at 30.52%. For all provinces outside Java Bali < 20%, except for South Sumatra (30%), West Papua (25%), South Kalimantan (23%), North Sulawesi (23%), and Bengkulu (21%). To anticipate the addition of higher cases outside Java-Bali, a Centralized Isolation (Isoter) facility will be activated.

Currently, the capacity of Isoters outside Java-Bali is 30,547 TT (Beds) and only 879 TT is filled or BOR of 2.88%. "Local governments are asked to prepare Isoters, with an anticipated capacity of 2-3 times compared to the Delta surge, which is around 61,094 to 91,641 TT, as a future mitigation step outside Java-Bali," he explained.

PPKM Extension Outside Java-Bali

Based on the results of the evaluation during the last two weeks, the Government decided to extend the implementation period of PPKM outside Java-Bali for the next 14 days, from 15 to 28 February 2022 in 386 regencies/cities outside Java-Bali.

The implementation of the PPKM Level outside Java-Bali is based on the "Assessment Level" of the Pandemic Situation which is based on two criteria, namely Community Transmission (number of cases, deaths, and hospitalizations) and Response Capacity (testing, tracing, treatment/BOR). Then, it is also based on the vaccination rate of Dose-2 (minimum achievement of 45%), and vaccination of Elderly Dose-1 (minimum achievement of 60%). Districts/Cities that do not meet the minimum limit will be raised by one PPKM Level, with certain exceptions.

Based on the criteria for determining the PPKM Level, the details of the Regency/City based on the PPKM Level are as follows:

PPKM level 1 decreased from 164 to 63 districts/cities. PPKM level 2 decreased from 208 to 205 districts/cities. PPKM level 3 increased from 14 to 118 districts/cities.

"This is to prepare and anticipate an increase in cases due to the Omicron variant in the next few weeks," said Coordinating Minister Airlangga.

Vaccination Achievement Progress

As of February 13, 2022, nationally, Dose-1 vaccination has reached 90.41% (188.3 million doses) and Dose-2 has reached 65.19% (135.8 million doses). Meanwhile, the achievement of booster vaccination or the third dose has reached 7.0 million doses.

For Dose-1 vaccination, there are still three provinces outside Java-Bali with achievements below 70%, namely Maluku, West Papua, and Papua. As for the Dose-2 vaccination, there are still 10 provinces with achievements below 50%, namely East Nusa Tenggara, South Kalimantan, Southeast Sulawesi, Central Sulawesi, West Sulawesi, North Maluku, Aceh, West Papua, Maluku, and Papua.

"According to the President's direction, the Government will continue to accelerate vaccination, especially for Dose-2 vaccination and booster vaccination, especially in areas outside Java-Bali that still require accelerated vaccination," said Coordinating Minister Airlangga.

Mandalika MotoGP Preparation

The MotoGP Pre-Season Test (Mandalika MotoGP Official Test) was held on 11-13 February 2022 at the Mandalika Circuit. This activity was attended by 24 Racers, 12 Teams, and ±600 Officials. The Official Test is held by prioritizing the implementation of the Health Procedures according to the SE Head of the Covid-19 Task Force Number 5 of 2022 related to the Bubble System Process during MotoGP 2022. The implementation of the Bubble System Process and the implementation of the Official Test in the field have full support from the Ministry of Health, Health Office, NTB Hospital, the Covid-19 Task Force. 19, the Travel Bubble Task Force, BNPB, Basarnas, hotels, and the NTB community.

"The progress of vaccination on Lombok Island will continue to be improved, towards the implementation of the Moto GP event in March," said Coordinating Minister Airlangga.

Protection of Workers with JHT and JKP

On the same occasion, Coordinating Minister Airlangga emphasized that the Government will always protect workers and the people who work in various sectors, so that they can have a decent life as mandated by the Indonesian constitution. On February 2, 2022, the Government issued the Minister of Manpower Regulation (Permenaker) Number 2 of 2022 concerning Procedures and Requirements for Payment of Old Age Security Benefits (JHT).

As we know, currently there are two Worker Protection Programs, and Old Age Security is different from Job Loss Guarantee (JKP). JHT is the protection of workers or laborers for the long term, while JKP is the protection of workers or laborers for the short term. The JHT program is designed as a long-term program that ensures the availability of a number of funds for workers when they are no longer productive, due to entering retirement age, experiencing permanent total disability, or death.

The benefits of the JHT Program consist of (1) Contribution Accumulation and Development; (2) Having other benefits that can be disbursed before retirement with certain conditions, namely having fulfilled a minimum membership period of 10 years, and the value that can be claimed is a maximum of 30% of the total JHT for housing, or a maximum of 10% for other needs; and (3) With the Minister of Manpower Regulation Number 2/2022, the accumulated contributions and benefits to be received can be greater if the worker or laborer reaches the age of 56 years (retirement).

Based on what is stated in the Minister of Manpower Regulation Number 2/2022 and Government Regulation (PP) Number 37/2021, the Government does not ignore protection if workers or workers are laid off before the age of 56 years, because they will still provide protection in the form of JKP, severance pay. , Service Period Rewards, and Entitlement Reimbursement Fees.

Regarding JKP, this is a new social security program regulated in the Job Creation Law to protect workers or workers who have been laid off so that they can maintain their standard of living before re-entering the labor market (PP Number 37/2021).

"The claim for the JKP program is effective as of February 1, 2022. So, JKP is a form of short-term protection for workers or laborers, because they immediately get benefits when they stop working," explained Coordinating Minister Airlangga.

The addition of the JKP program will not reduce the benefits of the existing social security program. In addition, the JKP program contributions will not burden workers and employers, because the amount of JKP contributions is 0.46% of wages that come from the Central Government.

Workers or workers who have been laid off are entitled to JKP benefits in the form of:

Cash of 45% of wages in the 1st to 3rd month; then 25% wages in the 4th to 6th month*. (*On wages registered with BPJS Ketenagakerjaan) Access to labor market information and/or job guidance. Work competency training through training institutions owned by the government, private sector, and companies.

With the new scheme regulated in PP No. 37/2021 and Permenaker No. 2/2022, the benefits received by workers will be greater. For example, a worker with two years of service and an income of IDR 5,000,000 in the new scheme can receive JKP benefits of up to IDR 10,500,000, while using the scheme stipulated in the Minister of Manpower Regulation No. 19/2015, the benefit received by the worker is only IDR 7,190,000.

In addition, to obtain the benefits of Housing Advance Loans (PUMP), JHT participants are also given loans of up to Rp. 150 million and the maximum mortgage amount is Rp. 500 million. The amount of PUMP and KPR benefits is stated in the Cooperation agreement between the Channeling Bank and BPJS Employment (Article 4 of the Minister of Manpower Number 17/2021 concerning Procedures for Provision, Requirements, and Types of Additional Service Benefits in the Old Age Security Program).

In addition to the above policies, the Government also provides social protection for informal workers, namely through the Pre-Employment Card. The benefits provided are in the form of training costs assistance for the development of work competencies including Skilling, Upskilling and Reskilling, as well as Entrepreneurship.

The total amount of assistance provided is Rp. 3,550,000, which consists of (i) Training of Rp. 1 million; (ii) Post-Training Incentive Rp2.4 million (Rp600 thousand x 4); (iii) Survey Incentive Rp 150 thousand (Rp 50 thousand x 3 times).

"The government will intensify socialization (JHT and JKP) over the next three months, and will start today. Furthermore, more technically the Minister of Manpower will also socialize this policy," concluded Coordinating Minister Airlangga.

Also attending the press conference were Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, and Minister of Health Budi Gunadi Sadikin.