Rise Toward New Way of Living

The Indonesian people celebrated the New Year’s Eve in high spirits to welcome 2023, boosted by the lifting of the public activity restrictions officially announced by President Joko Widodo on Friday (30/12/2022).

KOMPAS/HERU SRI KUMORO

President Joko Widodo (center) accompanied by Minister of Home Affairs Tito Karnavian (left) and Minister of Health Budi Gunadi Sadikin (right) delivered a statement regarding the revocation of the implementation of restrictions on community activities (PPKM) at the State Palace, Jakarta, Friday (30/12/2022).

For almost three years, we coped with restrictions that hugely impacted our daily lives. In the early days of the pandemic, people had to pray at home and were restrained from embarking on mudik (traveling to their hometown in exodus to celebrate Idul Fitri). Like it or not, people had to compromise as part of the effort to survive the COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite all the efforts to break the chain of transmission, people fell victim to the virus. Data by Worldometer shows that the pandemic hit 228 countries with 659,467,113 positive cases and 6,686,975 deaths as of Jan. 1, 2023. Positive cases in Indonesia totaled 6,719,815 and 160,612 people have died.

Also read:

> Optimism in the New Year

> New Year Without PPKM

With all its shortcomings, Indonesia was able to mitigate the pandemic quite well. The number of positive cases were far below the United States, which reportedly incurred the most caseload, followed by India, France and Germany. Even from an economic standpoint, Indonesia recovered faster than many other countries.

It was only at the end of 2022 that Indonesia officially lifted the public activity restrictions (PPKM), while in as early as mid-2022 many countries in Europe, Asia, America and the four countries with the highest positive cases of COVID-19 allowed social interactions in public. Given the severe impact of the prolonged pandemic, the relaxation was necessary to get the economy moving again.

KOMPAS/FERGANATA INDRA RIATMOKO

A burst of sunlight on the first day of 2023 is seen behind Plaosan Temple in Bugisan Village, Prambanan, Klaten, Central Java, Sunday (1/1/2023).

China, which initially implemented the "zero-COVID" policy, has also relaxed the restriction rules since mid-December 2022. Even though positive cases have been on the rise recently with hospitals crowded with the elderly being seriously infected, the relaxation has gone ahead and China has now shifted to a "living with COVID-19" policy. The Chinese government has stopped reporting COVID-19 data, but the international health analysis agency Airfinity predicts that daily infections in China have now reached 1.8 million positive cases with 11,000 deaths.

We appreciate the cautiousness the Indonesian government adopted over the situation before it decided it was time to lift the PPKM. One encouraging factor to the relaxation policy was the fact that based on data as of Dec. 27, 2022, daily positive cases of COVID-19 were as low as 1.7 cases per 100,000 people, with a mortality rate of 2.39 percent. It surpassed the World Health Organization’s (WHO) benchmark required for the relaxation policy.

Also read:

> Covid-19 Cases are Increasing

> Remember, Covid-19 is Still Here

Learning from how China has been through the pandemic, we must remain vigilant over the possible emergence of a new wave of cases. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that the fight against the pandemic was not over yet, even if the finish line was in sight. Moreover, the Omicron sub-virus is still continuously mutating.

Therefore, good habits during the implementation of the public activity restrictions may deserve to be maintained. Wearing a mask in crowded areas as well as indoors is still recommended. Social distancing and cleanliness should also not be forgotten. The government needs to constantly remind people to be vigilant in addition to accelerating the vaccination program and improving public health services.

The pandemic has given us extraordinary lessons to learn that injects us with the spirit to rise toward a new way of living.

This article was translated byMusthofid.