Corona virus in Indonesia: Jokowi urges residents to 'work, study and worship at home'

Corona virus in Indonesia: Jokowi urges residents to 'work, study and worship at home'

"People's health is number one. The most important thing is social distancing right now: how do we keep our distance (...) we work from home, learn from home, and worship at home," Jokowi told the media on Sunday (15/3).

"This is the time to work together. We want this to become a community movement so that this problem can be handled optimally."

"In most large and archipelagic countries, the degree of spread of Covid-19 varies in degree from one region to another. Therefore I ask all governors, regents, mayors to continue to monitor the condition of the region and continue to consult with medical experts in examining each situation which exists.

Jokowi also gave authority to determine the emergency status of an area to the regional head.

"Each region can determine the status of the area. Emergency preparedness or non-natural disaster emergency response," he said at the Bogor Palace.

Previously, WHO asked Indonesia to implement a number of steps including establishing a national emergency status amid an increase in corona virus infection. Until Sunday (3/15), 117 people tested positive for the corona virus, or increased by 21 new cases from the day before. Government spokesman for the handling of the corona virus, Achmad Yurianto, said the virus was observed to have spread to all regions in Indonesia. "If we look at the distribution, it has now widened. Jakarta, West Java, Tangerang. Then in Central Java we have cases in Solo and Yogyakarta," Ahmad Yurianto said at a press conference on Saturday (3/14) afternoon. "In Bali, Manado, Pontianak and in several other places we are now tracing because we have not found the actual position where," he continued. Therefore, according to Yuri, the government will "be aware of, even increase" efforts to trace, or tracing, "even harder". "This is important in the context of the response change after WHO said that this was a global pandemic," he said. In a letter to President Joko Widodo dated March 10, WHO Director General Thedros Adhanom, called on Indonesia to take a number of steps including, "increasing emergency responses including statements of national emergency status.

"Unfortunately, we see undetected cases or weak detection in the early stages of the outbreak which resulted in a significant increase in the number of cases and deaths in several countries," Adhanom wrote without elaborating on the countries in question. "In areas where local transmission is undetected or detection is weak, WHO strongly recommends these steps." Through Twitter, Adhanom said he had made telephone contact with President Jokowi and said the two sides "agreed to increase cooperation" in dealing with Covid-19.