After The Easing Of Masks, The Government Begins To Gradually Stop Subsidies For Treating COVID-19 Patients

Photo by Levi Meir Clancy on Unsplash

JAKARTA - The government will gradually stop subsidizing the cost of treating COVID-19 patients after the number of cases of corona virus transmission decreases.

"Gradually, that's for sure. If there is no time for the epidemic, it must continue to be subsidized," said Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Humanitarian Affairs Muhadjir Effendy, Thursday, May 19, quoted from Antara.

The government will now treat the handling of COVID-19 as the treatment of ordinary influenza, for which laboratory examinations to confirm the case do not receive financial assistance from the government.

The financing for the treatment of COVID-19 patients will then also be returned to the financing mechanism in the national health insurance program managed by BPJS Kesehatan.

"If it's not like that now, it will all be borne by the government," he said.

Muhadjir said that the transmission of COVID-19 in Indonesia was under control, marked by the continued decline in the number of cases and the death rate from the disease.

"In DKI, like the referral hospital, most of those who died were not due to COVID-19, the highest was cancer, the second was non-specific pneumonia, and COVID-19 ranked 14th, in fact the most below," he said, illustrating the condition of the COVID-19 transmission in DKI Jakarta.

Although the transmission of COVID-19 has begun to be controlled, he said, the government remains cautious in determining the transition steps to endemic.

"Of course all this does not mean that we are careless. We must not be careless, we must not take it lightly, because we do not know the development of this virus," he said.

He added that the new variant of the corona virus was confirmed to appear in other countries.

"So there is no other word, we must be vigilant in facing this COVID-19. Hopefully we will be successful towards the endemic transition," he said.