Jakarta faces a gap between the government's newest activity restrictions and reality on the ground, with many neighborhood authorities are already trying their best under less-than-ideal circumstances and lacking information and resources since the beginning of the pandemic.

The more targeted curbs, effective from Feb. 9 to 22, introduced last week as micro-scale public activity restrictions (PPKM Mikro), require neighborhood units (RTs) and community units (RWs) – the lowest levels of city administration – to enforce restrictions that best suit their level of risk. The higher the risk of transmission, determined regularly by the COVID-19 task force in each city or regency, the tighter the restrictions to be enforced by RTs or RWs.

In RTs with the highest transmission risk, where COVID-19 cases have been found in at least 10 households over seven d...