Indonesia's finance minister explains her country's response to Covid-19 I FT

Sri Mulyani Indrawati talks to the FT's Asia editor Jamil Anderlini about her country's unprecedented fiscal and monetary stimulus in response to the pandemic.

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[matprlz]

Data driven policies from the minister there...when did that not become the norm?? Here’s to hoping that Indonesia’s surprisingly strong tech pioneering economy can lead SEA, & Globally, too.

[hcm]

Here is an idea: close the borders of cities.
In theory it is much easier to close the borders of a single city than an entire country.
Determine which areas are infected and which areas are virus-free.
Close the borders of these areas or cities.
People who want to move from infected areas to virus-free areas need to be tested and quarantined.
By testing and moving people, it is possible to expand the virus-free areas and shrink the infected areas.
Create pockets of virus-free areas where people are only allowed to enter after test and quarantine. Then keep expanding those areas until they cover the entire country.
The advantage is that you allow the economic activities to continue normally in BOTH areas.
As infected areas shrink, it becomes easier and easier to stop the spread of the virus, as you know exactly where the virus is and can allocate more and more resources.


The problem with most countries is that they are secretly aiming for herd immunity because they simply try to SLOW the spread of the virus. But it doesn't matter if it is slow or quick, the virus is still SPREADING, and it will only stop when there are no more people to infect, which is the definition of herd immunity.

Instead of mitigation, we should aim for eradication.
Instead of slowing the spread, we should STOP the spread of the virus.
China locked down the city of Wuhan. Italy and Spain locked down the entire countries, where people were not allowed to leave their houses. But China aimed for elimination, while Italy and Spain aimed only for mitigation.

We can stop the spread of the virus by closing borders.
The virus is carried by people. If people cannot cross borders, neither can the virus.
You can completely block the virus from entering a certain region by closing the borders.
Country borders are already closed all over the world, why not close the borders of cities?
The closure is temporary if you test and move people to expand the virus-free areas and shrink the infected areas.
Most people live and work in the same city. Even if the city borders were closed, the disruption to their normal lives would be minimal. For most people nothing would change.

Trying to close down bars and restaurants is ludicrous and impossible. It is very easy for people to SECRETLY open bars and restaurants, have religious meetings, private parties, etc. You would need a police officer in every single household in the city to keep an eye on people but there is not enough police officers to do that.
On the other hand closing city borders is much easier. For most cities there are only a few points of entry. Putting police officers permanently in those points of entry is easy.

And technically the city borders would still be open. People would be required to be tested and quarantined in order to cross the border, that is all. After the quarantine people would be free to go anywhere they want, unrestricted, completely assured they are not infected.