The article analyzes the political and socio-economic risks of the COVID-19 epidemic and the reasons for its rapid spread in Indonesia, which outstripped other Southeast Asian countries in terms of deaths from coronavirus infection. The author notes that the epidemiological crisis is not only a medical problem, but also affected the sphere of politics, causing an aggravation of the conflict of interests between the government and the provincial authorities by the nature of the measures taken to curb the spread of the epidemic. Its economic consequences will be a decrease in economic growth, an increase in the number of unemployed and deepening of the problem of inequality and poverty. Awareness of these economic risks determines the government strategy to combat COVID-19.