THE ROLES OF GOVERNMENTS IN IMPLEMENTING LARGE-SCALE SOCIAL RESTRICTIONS TO ACCELERATE COVID-19 HANDLING

Based on the data obtained from wordometers per April 2021, coronavirus infection cases throughout the world reached 141,982,642 cases. 3,032,005 people died and 120,513,253 people recovered. In handling Covid-19, Indonesia has implemented Social Distancing and Rapid Test. The government has issued some regulations related to the Large- Scale Social Restrictions (known as PSBB/Pembatasan Sosial Berskala Besar). At the end of January 2020, China has immediately and assertively locked down Wuhan, a city with a total population of 11 million people. It was the biggest lockdown made throughout history. The problem in this research is how the governments Indonesia and China dealt with Covid-19 in its incipient phase. This research used a qualitative method based on the randomly-selected mapped news in accordance with the research focus and social distancing regulations enforced in Indonesia and China. Furthermore, those materials were systematically classified to prove that social distancing regulations can well reduce the spread of Covid-19 both in Indonesia and China. The research results show that the COVID-19 handling in each country is different. © 2022