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Businesses welcome eased curbs, but risk remains amid high COVID-19 toll
While the easing of the public activity restrictions (PPKM) may give certain businesses some breathing room, experts are not expecting the newly relaxed policy to have much impact on economic recovery.
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The food court at Pondok Indah Mall is relatively empty during lunch hour on June 15, 2020, the first day it reopened after the large-scale social restrictions (PSBB) was lifted. The tables have been spaced out to comply with the COVID-19 protocols. (JP/Arief Suhardiman)
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usinesses have welcomed the newly eased implementation of the public activity restrictions (PPKM) in hard-hit cities and regencies across Java and Bali, but the high daily toll of new infections and increasingly overburdened healthcare facilities still poses a downside risk on the economy.
The new PPKM is to be in place from Feb. 9 to 22 and applies to neighborhood and community units (RT/RW). The latest iteration of the policy extends the closing hour for shopping centers from 7 p.m. in the previous PPKM to 9 p.m. It also relaxes the operational capacity for both offices and dine-in restaurant services from 25 percent to 50 percent.
Chairman Alphonzus Widjaja of the Indonesian Shopping Center Association (APPBI) said on Monday that the new policy would help shopping centers, given the longer operational hours and increased capacity for dine-in services.
“The extension on operational hours is expected to restore the visitor rate to 30 to 40 percent, which had declined to 20 to 30 percent under the [previous] PPKM,” Alphonzus told The Jakarta Post via text message.
According to the latest Google COVID-19 Community Mobility Reports for Indonesia dated Feb. 5, retail and recreation visits in Jakarta and Bali were down 28 percent and 44 percent, respectively, steeper than the national figure of 21 percent.
The government issued the relaxed PPKM on Saturday, not long after President Joko Widodo stated that the original PPKM from Jan. 11 to Feb. 8 had been “ineffective”.
Read also: ‘Not effective’: Jokowi bemoans poor enforcement of virus restrictions
