Indonesia to run two-month monitoring before changing pandemic status

Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan (Photo: https://go.kompas.com/)

Stating at a working meeting with the Budget Committee of the House of Representatives (DPR) on June 9, he said "We all have to stand united in facing this (COVID-19 pandemic) because we cannot go on like this for too long."  Pandjaitan admitted to being highly concerned, as Indonesia's count of daily COVID-19 cases had reached 500 in the last three consecutive days, and the positive rate had touched one percent, from 0.5-0.8 percent earlier.

He confirmed to having spoken to President Joko Widodo to monitor the development of COVID-19 transmission in June and July before changing the country's pandemic status to endemic.

The minister said that if the COVID-19 pandemic is successfully kept under control throughout June and July, Indonesia can announce the change in COVID-19 status during the country's independence anniversary on August 17.

The first case of COVID-19 in Indonesia was confirmed in March 2020. According to data from the country’s COVID-19 Handling Task Force, as of June 9, 2022, the nation had counted a total of 6,057,142 COVID-19 infections, including 156,622 deaths.

Regarding vaccines against COVID-19, the Indonesian Health Ministry informed on the same day that it will spend a budget package worth 1.3 trillion Rupiah (89.2 million USD) purchasing domestically produced vaccines in 2022./.