JAKARTA (The Jakarta Post/Asia News Network): President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo (pic) declared an end to the national emergency status of the Covid-19 pandemic on Wednesday (June 21), as the country now looks forward to further economic recovery following three-plus years of the global health crisis.
Speaking in a prerecorded video published by the Presidential Secretariat on Wednesday, Jokowi said the government had revoked the national emergency status as the country was now entering an endemicity stage of Covid-19.
“After more than three years of facing the Covid-19 pandemic together, starting from Wednesday, June 21, 2023, the government has decided to revoke the [national emergency] status of the pandemic, as we enter an endemicity period,” he said.
The decision, Jokowi went on to say, was based on the fact that the country’s daily caseload was close to zero and that around 99 per cent of Indonesians had antibodies against the coronavirus, as revealed by recent national serology surveys.
“The government hopes that this decision can spur further [growth] in the national economy and improve the public’s quality of life, social [welfare] and economy,” he said, adding that the public should still maintain a healthy lifestyle and personal hygiene nevertheless.
Government officials had previously said that once the national emergency status was lifted, the government would disband the Covid-19 task force, which has been at the forefront of the country’s pandemic-handling efforts.
The public will also have to start paying for Covid-19 vaccines and treatment on their own or through insurance programmes, such as the National Health Insurance (JKN).
Jokowi’s announcement on Wednesday ended weeks of speculation about when the government would formally revoke the emergency status after the World Health Organization declared early last month that the disease was no longer a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC).
Jokowi preferred to wait until the Health Ministry outlined a new strategy to treat coronavirus as an endemic disease and to manage future pandemics based on guidelines from the WHO.
Indonesia has been easing health restrictions starting late last year, with the latest being two weeks ago when the government dropped mask mandates when in crowds, in indoor settings and on public transportation.
