HEADLINE: Jokowi Gives a Signal that PPKM Will Be Abolished at the End of 2022, Strategy for the COVID-19 Endemic Phase?

After the plan to repeal the PPKM, several parties joined in giving arguments. Gadjah Mada University epidemiologist, Bayu Satria Wiratama, agrees with President Jokowi’s plan. He said the current PPKM policy had no urgency to continue.

“Revoking it is okay because actually there is no urgency anymore,” said Bayu

“In the past, there was no good intervention on how to prevent this COVID-19 case from continuing to cause death. Then PPKM emerged,” Bayu said, quoting Between.

In addition, Bayu said that currently the community’s immunity against COVID-19 was quite high. Then if someone is affected, the symptoms that appear are mostly mild.

“There tends to be more mild than severe. Even if there is a spike it is not significant and the important thing is not to be followed by death without being hospitalized,” he said.

Even so, Bayu asked the government to continue to boost vaccination coverage booster or amplifier even though PPKM is discontinued. Especially boosting the vaccination of high-risk groups of people.

“For example, a new vaccine dose one so that the second dose arrives immediately booster. If booster the higher the better, especially for high-risk groups,” he said.

Meanwhile, some parties mentioned that the revocation of PPKM needs to be studied again. Don’t let it happen when PPKM is revoked and even cause the severity of the condition of COVID-19 in the country.

Public Policy Observer from Trisakti University Trubus Rahadiansyah asked the government to review the plan to abolish PPKM. According to him, the current cases of COVID-19 are still relatively high because of new variants that keep popping up.

“It’s not right at this time, because COVID-19 is still high, just regional reports now already I don’t want to be transparent, I don’t want to be complicated anymore. That’s the problem,” he told Liputan6.comThursday (22/12/2022).

He added, the Covid-19 Task Force in the working area was not optimal. This collided with the budget problem which he considered quite large.

“What’s happening, I see, is that the prevalence rate is low, because the COVID-19 task force is no longer doing its job optimally, because of the influence of the budget, all sources of problems are the budget. So it’s a matter of money. So because you see too much of the budget being spent,” he said.

“So in the end they think it’s endemic, so basically it’s just an assumption, if the reality isn’t yet, it’s still high. A new variant,” Trubus added.

“If I see (there is) pressure from economic actors, secondly there is pressure on economic growth, because this is to control inflation. Actually the goal is to keep inflation in the midst of domestic, regional and global economic uncertainty. These are indeed efforts that have been sacrificed. Maintaining inflation, economic growth 5.4 percent, PPKM must be removed. That’s the basis,” he explained.

Trubus also assessed that it was impossible that the review of the PPKM abolition plan would be completed in just one week. Therefore, he is worried that this will have an even more laborious impact on the community.

“Instructions (a week) mission impossible, where within a week everything will be over, I’m afraid there will be a domino effect later when the elite in the area and the people are unaware of the variants of COVID-19 because they keep on mutating. I’m worried that there will be casualties,” he said.

In line with Trubus, Member of Commission IX DPR RI Saleh Partaonan Daulay said, if it is true that this is done, then the underlying policy must be based on thorough studies and analysis from experts.

“The government is asked to apply policies wisely in accordance with existing conditions. Changes in the status of PPKM, for example, must be based on thorough analysis and studies. This is because the COVID-19 case has not yet been ascertained how it will end,” said Saleh via a text message received, Thursday (22/12/2022).

Saleh noted that until now the World Health Organization (WHO) has not released the pandemic status in general. Despite the fact, conditions and policies for the prevention of COVID-19 have varied.

Indonesia itself, continued Saleh, is currently reported to be sloping. However, keep in mind that cases of COVID-19 are still being found and some are still being exposed.

“So, if there is a policy of revoking PPKM, it must be accompanied by directions and appeals to the community. For example, the community is asked to maintain a Clean and Healthy Lifestyle (PHBS). This PHBS is needed not only during the COVID pandemic, but at any time,” explained the Chairperson. The PAN faction in the DPR.