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‘We will emerge more resilient’: Local communities find strength amid second virus wave
The government recently tightened micro-scale curbs, known as PPKM, until July 5, mandating neighborhood units (RTs) and community units (RWs) in provinces where the policy is in place to coordinate with teams at village or subdistrict level to ensure the curbs are well implemented in RTs.
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A motorcyclist passes an alley in South Gandaria subdistrict, Cilandak district, South Jakarta on June 21, 2021. A neighborhood in the subdistrict has been put under a local lockdown due to the high number of COVID-19 cases in the area. (Antara/Sigid Kurniawan)
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n Wednesday, Wagiman, 49, watched with alarm as a flood of messages poured into his phone from his colleagues in his community unit (RW) in Tugu, Depok, West Java, on the outskirts of Jakarta.
Earlier that month, the neighborhood where Wagiman lives had turned into a COVID-19 red zone – an area with a very high risk of infection. By Tuesday, 82 of its residents had tested positive for COVID-19 over the course of a month, he said, with two among them having died.
But the number changed again the next day.
“We have lost another life tonight,” Wagiman told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday. “One of our residents just passed away at Citra Arafiq Hospital.”
Indonesia reported a new record of daily COVID-19 infections on Sunday, with 21,342 new cases. The country’s COVID-19 cases soared to levels not seen before, posting record daily highs in new cases above 15,000 five days in a row since the nationwide confirmed case tally passed 2 million on Wednesday. Jakarta, West Java and Central Java were the biggest contributors to nationwide daily cases.
Despite pressure from the public and health experts to impose larger-scale restrictions, known as PSBB, the government remains unmoved on its widely criticized micro-scale curbs, known as PPKM Mikro, which put the lowest levels of city administration, the RWs and neighborhood units (RTs), at the forefront of the nation’s fight against the virus. The government recently tightened the PPKM until July 5, mandating RTs and RWs in provinces where the PPKM are in place to coordinate with teams at village or subdistrict level to ensure the curbs are well implemented in RTs.
Read also: Hospitals ‘collapse’ as second wave engulfs Indonesia
