"After more than three years, we fight the COVID-19 pandemic together, and today, Wednesday, June 21, 2023, the government decides to revoke the pandemic status and start to enter the endemic period," he remarked.
According to the president, the decision was taken on account of the fact that the number of daily COVID-19 cases in Indonesia is close to zero.
Data from the COVID-19 Handling Task Force showed that during the Delta wave, which peaked on July 15, 2021, the average number of daily cases stood at 16,041.
Meanwhile, during the Omicron wave, which peaked on February 16, 2022, the average number of daily cases reached 18,138.
In comparison with the current condition, the average number of daily cases from January to June 2023 only reached 533. The figure is far below the level 1 safe threshold set by the World Health Organization (WHO), at eight thousand daily cases.
The death rate has also been successfully decreased by 94 percent as compared to during the Delta and Omicron waves. Likewise, the rate of active cases currently stands at 0.14 percent, while earlier, it reached 17.61 percent during the Delta wave.
Furthermore, the bed occupancy rate at COVID-19 referral hospitals is currently at 1.7 percent, from earlier 78 percent during the peak of the Delta wave and 60 percent during the peak of the Omicron wave.
COVID-19 vaccination contributed to an improvement in the pandemic situation in Indonesia. Based on the serosurvey result, as of January 2023, some 99 percent of Indonesians have immunity against COVID-19.
Before Indonesia, several countries have revoked the health emergency status, such as the US, the UK, Germany, Australia, Singapore, Thailand, and the Philippines.
WHO representative for Indonesia, Dr N. Paranietharan, during his visit to the Health Ministry's office in Jakarta last April, noted that the number of new COVID-19 cases and deaths had been very low in almost all countries.
That fact became a reason why the WHO declared that COVID-19 is no longer a global health emergency on May 5, 2023.
The WHO assessed that Indonesia had good readiness to face COVID-19, among others, as reflected by its efforts to increase national vaccine industries and diagnostic laboratories and provide better handling.
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Victory against the COVID-19 pandemic
According to the United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), endemic refers to "the constant presence and/or usual prevalence of a disease or infectious agent in a population within a geographic area."
Based on the definition, it is important to underline that endemic does not mean the disease is gone from Indonesia, though the risk has declined.
Based on a report from the Ministry of Health, the downward graph of COVID-19 cases had actually occurred since December 25, 2022, moving consistently below five thousand daily cases.
For some people, COVID-19 was considered to have vanished even months before President Joko Widodo officially announced the revocation of the health emergency status.
This is shown by a decline in the people's compliance with health protocols, such as washing hands, maintaining safe distance, and wearing masks.
Several weeks before the announcement of the endemic, an epidemiologist from the Public Health Faculty of the University of Indonesia, Pandu Riono, once wrote, "Hooray the Indonesian people won against the pandemic" on social media.
As a member of the National Serosurvey Team, Riono had given input to Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin to declare the endemic phase on May 20, 2023, to coincide with National Awakening Day.
Although it was not announced during National Awakening Day, the revocation of the health emergency status on June 21, 2023, still coincided with a special day, namely the 62nd birthday of President Jokowi.
The community has collectively striven to face the pandemic for over three years after the first two confirmed COVID-19 cases in Indonesia were announced on March 2, 2020.
According to data from the COVID-19 Handling Task Force, as of the day of the health emergency status revocation, or June 21, 2023, the nation had recorded a total of 6,811,444 COVID-19 cases, 6,640,216 recoveries, and 161,853 deaths.
The Indonesian government declared a public health emergency status through Presidential Decree Number 11 of 2020 that was then followed by Presidential Decree Number 12 of 2020 that stipulated COVID-19 as a national disaster.
One year later, in 2021, the government declared the factual COVID-19 pandemic status in Indonesia through Presidential Decree Number 24 of 2021.
Since then, various efforts to fight COVID-19 have been made aggressively by the government through various strategies to mitigate the potential of a surge in cases.
For instance, one of the efforts is the genome sequencing method as a radar to detect the strength of the virus, as the enemy, and people's immunity, as the universal defense system.
Indonesia's "radar" capability is strengthened by 56 units of devices to test samples of viruses, bacteria, and fungi, which are currently available in 41 laboratory networks spread across Indonesia, with the ability to report up to 2,700 samples per week.
For the universal defense system, a serosurvey has been conducted periodically every six months to examine people's antibodies, both formed naturally from infection and from vaccination.
In the final defense system, the efforts made include the provision of financing guarantees for COVID-19 patients, free vaccinations, and the implementation of the public activity restrictions (PPKM) policy.
The PPKM policy was earlier officially revoked by the government on December 30, 2022.
Indonesia has also strengthened its defense system by improving the capabilities of pharmaceutical industries in the country, such as Bio Farma, Biotis Pharmaceutical, and Etana Biotechnologies Indonesia, which are able to produce vaccines and antiviral drugs for long-term needs.
The achievements and efforts will support Indonesia in facing the COVID-19 endemic and also future pandemics.
Currently, the community is expected to maintain good behaviors that have been developed during the pandemic, including complying with health protocols and implementing a clean and healthy lifestyle, to face the endemic.
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Translator: Andi Firdaus, Raka Adji
Editor: Sri Haryati
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