Through this visit, we hope the police's messages will be assisted by ulemas, so that they can easily be accepted by Muslim communitiesJakarta (ANTARA) - National Police Chief, Gen.Listyo Sigit Prabowo, has continued his courtesy visits to ulemas and Muslim figures to discuss collective action on handling the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Through this visit, we hope the police's messages will be assisted by ulemas, so that they can easily be accepted by Muslim communities," he said in a statement on Thursday.
Prabowo made the statement following a courtesy visit to Habib Syech bin Abdul Qodir Assegaf in Solo city, Central Java province the same day.
During the meeting, Prabowo appealed to the widely respected ulema to support the government's national vaccination program, launched to break the chain of COVID-19 transmission.
"A successful handling of the coronavirus pandemic will affect our economic recovery efforts, but our society has remained polarized owing to the last elections," he remarked.
In response to Prabowo's request, Habib Syech bin Abdul Qodir Assegaf said he would support the government and police efforts to handle the pandemic.
"We are all working together to achieve one goal. Let us collaborate. The best people are those most beneficial to other people," he commented.
Coronavirus infections initially surfaced in the Chinese city of Wuhan at the end of 2019.
Since then, COVID-19 has had over 215 countries and territories, including 34 provinces in Indonesia, under its grip, which has resulted in a massive number of deaths.
To safeguard Indonesians from the lethal virus, the Indonesian government has secured COVID-19 vaccine doses through bilateral and multilateral mechanisms.
It has also rolled out a national vaccination program since January 13, 2021, with President Joko Widodo becoming the first recipient of the Sinovac vaccine jab.
The Health Ministry is planning to inoculate about 181.5 million people under the vaccination program, which is expected to take 15 months.
Indonesia's COVID-19 infection rate crossed one million cases on January 26, 2021.
The Indonesian Health Ministry is currently collaborating with the military and national police to bring down the country's infection rate.
To achieve this end, the police has prepared 13,500 personnel from its health service division as vaccinators and 40,336 others as contact-tracers. (INE)
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EDITED BY INE
Translator: M.Zulfikar, Rahmad Nasution
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
Copyright © ANTARA 2021
