JAKARTA, June 29 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia brought down almost half of the country's areas where risks of COVID-19 transmissions are high and will involve more soldiers, policemen and doctors in reining the spread of the virus, an official said on Monday.
Within about three weeks, the number of districts and cities with high risks of the transmissions has edged down to 57 from 108, Head of the COVID-19 Task Force Doni Monardo noted after a cabinet meeting at the State Palace.
"The strides to weaken the risks must be intensified by all the stakeholders in each area," said Monardo, who is also Head of the National Disaster Management and Mitigation Agency.
Monardo, citing Indonesian President Joko Widodo, said that the 57 high-risk areas have to be heeded more during the mitigation.
He did not elaborate on the additional number of soldiers and policemen to be dispatched.
The Indonesian president has ordered to drift up the number of medical workers and the supply of medical equipment to curb the transmission of the virus, according to Monardo.
In spite of the progress in narrowing the high-risk areas, known as red zones, the head of the task force cautioned that the participation of all parties and their disciplines in applying the social restrictions are badly required to avoid the acceleration of COVID-19 transmission.
Indonesia has applied partial lockdowns along with physical distancing protocols and a movement to wear face masks to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
The decline of the high-risk areas highlights the beneficiary of the move, though the number of virus infection cases remains afloat in the archipelagic nation
Since May, Indonesia has deployed nearly 350,000 troops and police personnel to enforce the lockdown.
COVID-19 has killed 2,805 out of 55,092 infected persons in Indonesia, the government's spokesman for the Novel Coronavirus-related Matters Achmad Yurianto reported on Monday. Enditem
