"I ensure that our mandated efforts to eradicate corruption in Indonesia will not stop because of this COVID-19 pandemic," KPK Chairman Firli Bahuri said in a statement that made available to ANTARA here on Sunday.
The antigraft agency's authority has requested majority of its employees to work from home for three days starting from Monday (Aug 31) after 23 workers have tested positive for the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
In breaking the chain of the deadly coronavirus outbreak, the KPK building will be closed from Aug 31 to Sept 2. It will also be sprayed with disinfectant.
Apart from this challenging condition, the KPK commissioners and several employees from the agency's law enforcement division would still work from the office to handle certain works that cannot be done at home, Firli Bahuri said.
The COVID-19 pandemic situation would not disrupt the agency's corruption eradication efforts, he added.
One of those testing positive for the virus that causes COVID-19 is Novel Baswedan, the agency's senior investigator.
In conversation with ANTARA, Baswedan noted that apart from the mandatory self-isolation, he otherwise felt healthy. "Alhamdulillah (Thank God), I feel healthy," he stated.
Baswedan spoke of having tested positive for COVID-19 based on the swab test that he had recently undertaken. He had earlier developed symptoms of COVID-19, such as cough and fever.
Novel coronavirus infections initially surfaced in the Chinese city of Wuhan at the end of 2019.
Since then, COVID-19 has spread to over 215 countries and territories, including 34 provinces of Indonesia, with a massive spurt in death toll.
To tackle this COVID-19 pandemic that has triggered public health and economic crises in several affected countries, Indonesia is leaving no stone unturned to develop a vaccine to fight the virus.
Currently, in addition to the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine, Indonesian scientists are working on a vaccine named after the country's national flag, Merah Putih (Red and White).
The pandemic has acutely impacted Indonesia's economy, with the nation’s gross domestic product contracting 5.32 percent in the second quarter of this year.
The government has laid emphasis on the criticality of solid support of and active participation from all elements of society to tackle the public health and economic crises.
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Translator: Fathur R, Rahmad Nasution
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
Copyright © ANTARA 2020
