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Jakarta curbs remain unchanged amid case spike
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A health worker prepares a third dose of a COVID-19 vaccine for a local resident at Kramat Jati community health center in East Jakarta on Jan. 12, 2022. (Antara/Aprillio Akbar)
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akarta will remain under prevailing COVID-19 curbs at least for the time being, the government has announced, despite a recent case spike in the city that authorities have called “the first battleground” in the fight against the highly contagious Omicron variant.
The capital, excluding its extensive satellite cities, is home to some 12 million people and has been the worst-hit region in the current surge of coronavirus infections, accounting for more than half of the nation’s recent cases. It is also the main gateway for international arrivals to the country and was the epicenter of some of the pandemic’s previous outbreaks.
Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister Luhut Pandjaitan said the government would treat Jakarta and the surrounding cities of Depok, Bogor and Bekasi in West Java and Tangerang in Banten as one unit for the purposes of virus control and that the current situation did not warrant a change in the capital city’s public mobility restrictions (PPKM).
“The government consistently treats Jakarta as a unified agglomeration of Greater Jakarta, which is currently still under [PPKM] level 2,” Luhut said at a press conference on Monday. He added, however, that as Jakarta was a pandemic “theater of war” with dynamic conditions, the government’s assessment could change in the future.
Under PPKM level 2, malls are allowed to remain open until 9:00 p.m. at 50 percent capacity, while public parks are allowed to welcome visitors at 25 percent of capacity, among other provisions.
Luhut added that the government “had never thought of” reinstating emergency public activity restrictions (PPKM Darurat), the country’s most stringent curbs, which were enacted in anticipation of the Delta variant wave last year.
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