President of Indonesia, Joko Widodo (Jokowi), asserts local-scale lockdown is enough. (Image via Kompas.com)

Jokowi: Mini lockdown does better

On Monday, the President of Indonesia, Joko Widodo (Jokowi), once again mentioned the implementation of a local-based intervention to suppress the infection of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Referring to it as "mini lockdown", Jokowi stated that the local intervention is far more effective than the full-scale lockdown. Therefore, Jokowi asked all the COVID-19 Handling and National Economic Recovery Committee to distribute the suggestion to all regions.

"Repetitive mini lockdown is more effective. Do not generalize it to one city, regency, nor even province as it will bring more harm than good," said Jokowi during his address opening the COVID-19 Handling and National Economic Recovery online meeting broadcast through Presidential Secretary's official YouTube account.

The former mayor of Solo is certain that the local-scale lockdown is far more effective as it will cover villages, offices, even Islamic boarding school (pesantren), potential hotbeds of COVID-19 infection. Previously, Jokowi said that the implementation of micro/community-scale social distancing is far more effective than large-scale social distancing (PSBB), a message repeatedly told by the president during numerous occasions.

Jokowi recalled that not all regions are "red". If one region is shown "yellow" or even "green", that shows an indication of low-risk COVID-19 infection. Currently, PSBB is being implemented once more in Jakarta since 14 September, extended to 10 October.

Source: https://bit.ly/3iaSKgI