May Go Home This Year, Minister Of Health Says There Is Potential For An Increase In COVID-19 Cases After Lebaran

ILLUSTRATION/CIPALI TOLL/DOK BETWEEN

JAKARTA - The government has allowed people to go home for this year's Eid. Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said there was a potential for an increase in COVID-19 cases after Lebaran.

According to the Minister of Health, this can be seen from the increase in COVID-19 cases after the month of Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr in 2021. Even though going home was prohibited at that time, there was a new variant of Delta that entered Indonesia.

Similarly, at this time the BA.1 and BA.2 sub-variants have also spread, namely derivatives of the Omicron COVID-19 variant which have a high transmission rate.

"Observation, we have the potential for an increase every time there is a big event, the crowd is there, but the spike in increase is so the increase is high, it's always caused by a new variant. We, when July (cases) were high, actually caused more by a new variant. Our COVID-19 cases went up February was also caused by a new variant," Budi said in a virtual press conference, Wednesday, March 23.

However, Minister of Health Budi said that President Joko Widodo realized that people had longed to stay in touch with relatives in their hometowns during Eid celebrations, along with worship activities at mosques during Ramadan to Eid.

"Therefore, the President deliberately asked us and thank God the conditions allowed, so he decided to provide broad opportunities for Muslims to be able to carry out Ramadan worship and also celebrate Eid al-Fitr," explained Budi.

For information, President Jokowi allows people to go home for Lebaran this year freely as long as they have carried out the third dose of COVID-19 vaccination or booster.

More specifically, people who have not undergone a booster can still go home but with certain conditions. People who have just vaccinated two doses or a complete dose are required to do an antigen test before traveling. Meanwhile, people who have just received the first dose of vaccine must perform a PCR test.