Eid al Adha animal sacrifice will continue in Indonesia amid emergency restrictions as COVID cases surge
JAKARTA – Indonesia’s government has once again issued safety instructions for Eid al Adha animal sacrifice as COVID-19 cases surge in the country.
The Eid al Adha animal sacrifice went ahead last year when the government issued similar safety instructions. Based on data from the ministry of agriculture’s online system iSIKHNAS, 1,683,354 animals were slaughtered last year, down by around 10% year-on-year. This number comprised 313,453 sheep, 813,228 goats, 14,773 buffalo, and 314,274 cows.
Syamsul Maarif, Director of Veterinary Public Health at the ministry of agriculture told Salaam Gateway that circular letter number 8017/SE/PK.320/F/06/2021 is an effort to prevent the further spread of COVID-19 which has recently surged due to the more contagious Delta variant.
The instructions are also in line with recent emergency lockdown measures particularly in Java and Bali, that were implemented from July 3 and are scheduled to run through July 20.
Coronavirus cases in Indonesia have surged to more than 2 million cases, with more than 20,000 new cases per day. The government’s new 100% work from home and study from home instruction is expected to push down the number of cases to under 10,000 cases a day.
The government’s guidance covers three key focus areas: the health of the animals to be sacrificed, the process of slaughtering, and the distribution of the meat to beneficiaries.
“In short, each person involved in every location, both at the point of sale and at the slaughterhouse, must do the 5M health protocols namely, wearing masks, washing hands with soap and water, maintaining distance, staying away from crowds and limiting mobilization and interaction,” said Syamsul.
“Based on government regulation number 95/ 2012, slaughtering of animals for the purposes of religious ceremonies can be carried out outside the slaughterhouse (RPH), if a district/city does not yet have an RPH or the slaughtering capacity at the existing RPH is inadequate. Therefore, I remind that slaughtering sacrificial animals outside the RPH must still pay attention to sanitation hygiene standards,” he added.
Based on data from the agriculture ministry, in 2020 the number of sacrificial animals outside RPHs was 34,051 locations, including 22,224 mosques (65%), 3,079 fields (9%), 607 schools (2%) and 8,141others (24%). The number of butchers last year was 74,136.
The number of animals to be sacrificed and their locations has not been completely collated from all regions and is scheduled to be tabulated around 10 days prior to the festival.
Eid al Adha, which marks the end of the annual haj pilgrimage, will fall around July 20 this year.
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