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Jakarta Post

Anies refutes mall reopening claims

Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan has refuted the Jakarta Indonesian Shopping Center Association’s (APPBI) claim that shopping malls will reopen in early June, citing the possibility that the capital’s large-scale social restrictions (PSBB) will be extended

Ghina Ghaliya (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Thu, May 28, 2020

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Anies refutes mall reopening claims

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akarta Governor Anies Baswedan has refuted the Jakarta Indonesian Shopping Center Association’s (APPBI) claim that shopping malls will reopen in early June, citing the possibility that the capital’s large-scale social restrictions (PSBB) will be extended.

Anies said the third phase of restrictions in Jakarta, which will be in force until June 4, could be extended if deemed necessary.

“So if anyone says the malls will open on June 5, that’s made up. It’s fiction,” Anies told the media on Tuesday night.

“No regulation has been issued that says PSBB [in Jakarta] has ended.”

The governor added that the reopening date of malls in Jakarta would depend on the evaluation of the third phase of Jakarta’s PSBB, which would be conducted on Friday. He expected the results to come out early next week.

“It could be extended. It could also end. It will neither depend on the government nor the experts but on the behavior of all of us. If people can control themselves and the virus reproduction level drops to below 1, then PSBB could end on June 4,” he said.

APPBI Jakarta chapter chairwoman Ellen Hidayat previously said 60 malls in the capital would reopen for business on June 5 and four others would reopen on June 8, in line with the Jakarta gubernatorial regulation on the extension of PSBB, which will end on June 4.

Despite telling businesses to wait for the evaluation, Anies said he had prepared “new normal” policies if the city administration decided not to extend PSBB. He added that he had collaborated with several epidemiologists to develop the policies for Jakartans.

“The coverage will include economic, religious, social and cultural activities so we can live our lives while preventing the spread of the virus,” he said, adding that he would announce the policies on the same day as the PSBB evaluation results.

National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) chairman Suharso Monoarfa previously said that Jakarta had the potential to become a model for the “new normal” — that the city had met the requirements.

Suharso said there were three criteria for regions to become such a model: a COVID-19 basic reproduction number (R0) below one for two consecutive weeks, a hospital capacity larger than the number of new cases requiring hospital care and a swab test capacity of at least 3,500 per 1 million people.

As part of the plan to gradually loosen PSBB, police and military personnel will be deployed to monitor the situation starting on Tuesday in Jakarta, West Java, West Sumatra and Gorontalo provinces.

Some 340,000 officers will be posted at 1,800 public spaces to enforce restrictions on large gatherings and ensure modes of public transportation and commercial areas operate at only 50 percent capacity, according to Indonesian Military commander Air Chief Marshal Hadi Tjahjanto.

A shopping mall that can accommodate 1,000 people, for instance, will only be allowed to hold 500 people.

 

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