We must ensure that all governors, head of districts, and mayors also reallocate their administration budget to cover the costs incurred in treating people infected with COVID-19Jakarta (ANTARA) - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) called on all ministries and regional heads to apportion a special budget channeled from the state and regional administration budgets to cover the costs incurred in handling the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
The president urged all governors, district heads, and mayors across the country to ensure that a special budget is allocated that can be drawn from unprioritized budget reallocation to ensure that the costs incurred in treating COVID-19 infected patients at hospitals are covered.
The presidents made the statement during a limited meeting held via video teleconferencing from Istana Merdeka here on Tuesday.
"We must ensure that all governors, head of districts, and mayors also reallocate their administration budget to cover the costs incurred in treating people infected with COVID-19," Jokowi stated.
Furthermore, Jokowi urged the Ministry of Finance and local governments to ensure that hospitals assigned to handle COVID-19 cases are guaranteed funding to treat patients.
"We have to focus on the ability to keep those hospitals fully functional, particularly through guarantee of funding to treat patients and process of expediting the disbursement of payment to the hospitals," Jokowi remarked.
As of Monday (March 23), Indonesia had 579 cases of COVID-19, with 30 cases of people having recovered and 49 deaths.
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Translator: Indra Pribadi, Yuni Arisandy
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
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