English
Indonesia to impose hard Covid-19 lockdown from June 30
[JAKARTA] Indonesia plans to impose stricter restrictions starting on Wednesday, as South-east Asia’s most populous country battles a second wave of coronavirus infections driven by the more transmissible Delta variant.
President Joko Widodo will lead an internal meeting on Tuesday to discuss details of the planned new measure, called Pemberlakuan Pembatasan Kegiatan Masyarakat (PPKM) Darurat, or emergency public activity restrictions, according to two senior government officials and a lawmaker who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The new measures may require all workers in the non-essential sector to work from home and ban dining in at restaurants, a member of Parliament’s (MP) health committee told The Straits Times in a text message.
Currently 25 per cent of company employees are allowed to work from the office and restaurant dine-ins are limited to 25 per cent of capacity.
Domestic air travel would be allowed only for those who have been vaccinated and can produce negative polymerase chain reaction swab test results, the MP added.
It is not clear whether the new measures would apply nationwide or to only the red zone regions, where cases have been rising sharply this month.
Areas that have been designated as red zones include the capital Jakarta, parts of Yogyakarta and the regions of Kudus in Java, Bangkalan on Madura island, Bandung in West Java and parts of Riau in Sumatra.
“Let’s wait for the full details from the Istana (presidential palace),” one of the sources said.
The new measure would be a shift from the current localised lockdown, called micro public activity restriction, or PPKM Micro, which many see as no longer effective.
The mitigation team of Indonesian medical doctors’ association on Sunday appealed to the government to impose a hard lockdown of at least two weeks, especially in Java.
They added that maximum enforcement is required as surging cases have overloaded hospitals.
Jakarta governor Anies Baswedan said in an interview with TVOne on Sunday: “Hospital lobbies, hallways have turned into treatment wards. Emergency rooms have been used as ICUs (intensive care units). This means our situation is really serious.”
Of the total 10,448 isolation wards in hospitals across Jakarta, 9,787, or 94 per cent, have been occupied as of Monday, Mr Anies said.
Appealing to all Jakarta residents to avoid any non-essential trip, Mr Anies said: “This is not a situation in the movie. This is real. Our hospitals are experiencing serious situations.”