House Speaker Dr. (H.C.) Puan Maharani said the new normal that the government would implement should improve nation’s health and economy all together, saying the new norm should be comprehensively organized in all sectors and scenarios to maintain people’s health and bring the economy back on its feet.

“The new normal phase is important because we cannot choose between economy and health, but we need to ensure that they can go hand-in-hand,” said the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) politician in a written statement to Parlementaria on Wednesday (10/6/2020).

She underlined that social activities and traditional markets needed more attention. Reports suggested that vendors at some traditional markets have been tested positive for COVID-19. It shows that traditional markets may become epicenters of the transmission unless proper handling procedures are implemented.

Maharani continued by maintaining that the economic pulse in local regions is beating in traditional markets, where main social interaction takes place. “Therefore, the Government’s attention towards the establishment and implementation of the new normal protocols in traditional markets is urgently needed because they are the driving force of the real economic sector,” added the Central Java legislator.

Maharani also underlined the importance of clear and concise dissemination of the new normal protocols to ensure proper understanding by all people. In addition to the highly detailed new normal protocols, strict monitoring and evaluation mechanisms are also required. Moreover, Maharani noted from the COVID-19 Task Force that, by Tuesday (9/6/2020), there was 1,034 new COVID-19 cases in Indonesia.

Therefore, we should monitor these data very closely and base our decision-making on them. However, Maharani appreciates President Jokowi’s achievement of meeting the 10,000 specimen tests per day target, which now has been raised to a targeted testing of 20,000 a day. Maharani continued by saying that this is in line with the new normal policy, and that it allows the economy to recover without ignoring the public health aspects.

“We are also looking forward to innovation from relevant agencies responsible to trace the spread of COVID-19 through the use of communication technology system. Simultaneous implementation of the properly-detailed new normal protocol, along with increased specimen tests, as well as extensive and rapid tracing of the spread of COVID-19, will hopefully ensure that we can recover the economy, while maintaining public health”, she said. (ann/sf)