"We also call for optimizing the work-from-home policy for a while to reduce the risk of virus transmission," the minister stated during a press conference at the Presidential Office here on Monday.
Pandjaitan noted that during the Eid celebration, the mobility of people venturing out of their homes had increased by 48.1 percent as compared to the baseline level.
"Eid al-Fitr that was recently celebrated presented an opportunity for significant recovery of economic activity, and people's mobility also increased very quickly during that period," he stated.
Hence, in the next one to two weeks, the government will strengthen the testing and tracing of close contacts of COVID-19 cases to prevent a potential spike in COVID-19 cases.
He affirmed that as of Monday, May 9, 2022, the COVID-19 pandemic situation in Indonesia was getting under control.
The improvement in Indonesia's pandemic situation is reflected by the 97-percent decrease in the hospitalization rate of inpatients nationally, which consequently led to the bed occupancy rate in hospitals reaching to only two percent.
Moreover, cases of deaths due to the Omicron variant of COVID-19 also fell by 98 percent, while the positivity rate or transmission rate stood at below 0.7 percent, he pointed out.
This year, for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic struck, the Indonesian government has allowed people to travel to their hometowns to celebrate Eid al-Fitr in view of the improving pandemic situation in the country.
The government has also urged people joining the homecoming exodus to complete their primary and booster vaccinations.
Those not meeting the vaccination requirement are urged to show a negative COVID-19 test result.
According to data provided by the COVID-19 Handling Task Force, as of May 8, 2022, Indonesia had recorded a total of 6,048,431 COVID-19 cases, 5,885,858 recoveries, and 156,381 deaths.
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Translator: Indra Arief, Raka Adji
Editor: Sri Haryati
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