Low COVID-19 Budget Absorption, Vice President Ma'ruf: I Ask For This To Be Properly Driven

JAKARTA - Vice President Ma'ruf Amin appealed to all governors, regents and mayors to increase the absorption of the budget for handling the COVID-19 pandemic in each region.

"Please pay attention, as said by the Minister of Home Affairs, many of them still have low budget absorption for the handling of COVID-19. Therefore, I ask that this be really encouraged," said the Vice President in a statement received by Antara, Thursday, July 22.

The call was conveyed by Vice President Ma'ruf while giving directions to the Governor of East Java Khofifah Indar Parawansa, all regents and mayors in East Java Province and the COVID-19 Handling Task Force in East Java.

The vice president also asked local government officials to immediately improve population data, especially regarding data on recipients of social assistance (bansos) from the government.

The distribution of social assistance to communities affected by COVID-19 in East Java is still low, so the Vice President asked Khofifah to support the regents and mayors to improve the data of the beneficiary communities.

"The still low distribution of social assistance requires the support of the East Java Provincial Government to accelerate, through data improvement, especially the completeness of the NIK data of beneficiaries," said the Vice President explaining.

The vice president also asked the East Java Provincial Government to improve performance to improve the implementation of the implementation of community activity restrictions (PPKM), which are now starting to use level categories.

"Additional efforts are needed so that the implementation of the restrictions can be even better," said the Vice President.

Meanwhile, Khofifah reported that the case fatality rate (CFR) in East Java fell from 7.24 percent to 6.61 percent, while active COVID-19 cases rose significantly from 5.68 percent to 19.49 percent.

The increase in active cases, continued Khofifah, was partly due to an increase in the number of tests reaching five to six times every day.

"Starting last Monday, when there was an exponential increase due to an increase in testing of up to five to six times per day, the number of confirmed cases increased," he said.

Although active cases have increased, Khofifah said the occupancy of the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at the hospital has not increased or is in a flat condition.

"Hospital occupancy rates, both ICU and ordinary isolation rooms, are relatively flat," he said.