Executive Secretary I at the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs Raden Pardede has estimated that people will likely still continue to work from home even after COVID-19 turned into an endemic.

“This is because now, people enjoy working from home. Maybe during the pandemic, more than 50 percent of the people work from home, and it will not go back to the way it used to be (before the pandemic),” Pardede noted when contacted by ANTARA here Thursday.

According to the ministry’s executive secretary, the pandemic has made company leaders to request their employees to do their work remotely, especially those located outside the city.

Implementing work from home could even boost the employees’ productivity, as they do not have to spend hours to get to the office.

“By not spending an hour or two on the way to work, employees will have more time to be productive,” he pointed out.

Pardede expressed optimism that the COVID-19 pandemic in the country would become an endemic once the number of patients receiving treatments in hospitals and the death rate could be brought under control.

“However, it does not mean that we can completely eliminate COVID-19. We should be able to treat COVID-19 similar to DHF and common flu (later),” he stated.

Once COVID-19 has become endemic, it will only spread in Indonesia a few times a year.

Hence, people will be able to conduct their activities more freely although they cannot entirely forego the habits developed during the pandemic.

In addition to working from home, the community will still need to follow health protocols, such as wearing masks, washing hands, and social distancing.

“If we can ensure that the transmission rate of COVID-19 is low and the vaccination coverage is high, our activities will return to normalcy, of course, by still following the health protocols,” he remarked.

Source: Antara News