Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan has advised President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) to wait for the development of COVID-19 in Indonesia for two months to become endemic, on 17th August 2022.
“We are not in a hurry to enter an endemic. I suggested to the President last Sunday, ‘we will wait for these two months, sir‘. If we are still able to survive these two months well, I think we will get a prize on 17th August,” the minister said at a meeting at the parliament complex, Senayan, Jakarta on Thursday 9th June.
Pandjaitan continued that the hope that Indonesia would enter an endemic could soon be realised.
“But again, our discipline must still be very important in this regard, especially in vaccination which I think we should all encourage,” he added.
Furthermore, Pandjaitan spoke regarding the increasing number of COVID-19 cases in the last few days.
“Because of this COVID, ladies and gentlemen, in my opinion, it is still difficult for us to predict. In the last three days, we have seen the number go up again, it was 300, 200, suddenly it went up to 500. So we all have to be united in facing this because it can’t be like this for long,” he said.