On the 14th of June 2023, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo said that his administration would shortly classify COVID-19 as an endemic, terminating the pandemic status that has affected the nation’s economic and social activities for the past three years.
Regarding with epidemiology, endemic disease is limited to a specific area or community instead of a pandemic, which affects the entire world.
President Jokowi claims that he reached this decision during a coordination meeting with the relevant ministries a day earlier at the Presidential Palace in Jakarta. Before making an official announcement, the administration declares COVID-19 as an endemic.
“Yes, this transition process has been finalised over the past week or two, and it will be announced soon because everything has already stabilised,” Jokowi said during a visit to the State Development Finance Controller (BPKP) building in Jakarta.
“Indonesia has meet conditions which needed a declaration of COVID-19 from the pandemic to endemic phase officially,” Jokowi remarked. According to Jokowi, there were only about 217 COVID-19 cases in the last two days, and there are currently about 10,200 active cases nationwide.
In the meantime, more than 452 million vaccine doses have been provided by the Indonesian government.
“This will be out in detail later. So, we had a meeting yesterday, and decided to enter the endemic phase. Still, the exact timing of the announcement will be finalised within a week or two,” President Jokowi concluded.
The government has eliminated COVID-related restrictions, including wearing masks in public areas; with this decision, the Indonesian government hopes that Indonesia will fully recover economically as soon as possible.
The Indonesian government believed that this decision would significantly impact the tourism sector, hoping that the tourism sector would be able to capitalise on this situation and attract more international tourists
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