And this time, Anies is looking to reopen movie theaters, despite the continuing surge in COVID-19 cases. 

 

The city recorded 820 new cases on Thursday when Anies announced the extension, its highest daily tally. 

On Friday, it recorded 816 new cases to bring Jakarta’s cumulative tally to 37,278 confirmed cases, including 6,955 active cases, of which 2,827 patients are currently hospitalized. The nation's capital has recorded a total of 1,154 COVID-19 deaths. 

 

City health authorities, however, stressed that the figure did not necessarily reflect the number of people who contracted the disease on a particular date, due to probable delays in reporting test results. 

 

With the outbreak in the city showing no signs of slowing down, Anies has called on the public “to follow health protocols with strict discipline”. 

 

Jakartans should also practice physical distancing and good personal hygiene, limit outdoor activities and wear a mask every day. 

 

Anies also urged people to keep their spirits up while constantly reminding each other to follow the health protocols during the transitional PSBB “to suppress various epidemiological indicators of COVID-19 transmission", in an Instagram post on Thursday evening that announced the 14-day PSBB extension. 

 

The governor has warned the public on at least two occasions that he could impose tighter restrictions in light of the continuing increase in daily cases. 

 

Experts largely attribute the daily surges to lax adherence to the rules on social distancing and wearing masks. 

 

Last week, Anies vowed to closely monitor the city’s positivity rate in the final days of the previous transitional PSBB period before deciding on another extension. 

 

The test positivity rate refers to the percentage of all tests returning a positive result for COVID-19 infection. 

Meanwhile, Deputy Governor Ahmad Riza Patria also stated last week that a positivity rate of above 10 percent would be deemed high enough of a public health risk to warrant pulling the emergency brake on reopening the economy.  The capital has recorded a positivity rate of 9.9 percent over the past week, according to Jakarta Health Agency data on Thursday. 

 

Although Jakarta is a mere 0.1 percent below the deputy governor's maximum positivity rate, the city is still pushing ahead with its "transition phase" to reopen the local economy. Officials have attributed the high rate to increased widespread testing and aggressive contact tracing. 

 

With 43,270 tests administered in the past week. Jakarta is the only region that meets the minimum testing rate of 1 test per 1,000 population per week as recommended by the World Health Organization. Based on the official population of 10.5 million, this works out to 4.12 times the WHO's recommended standard. 

 

This does not take into account the high intercity mobility between Jakarta and its satellite cities, or Greater Jakarta, which includes cities of other provinces that lack COVID-19 testing. Even so, with a Greater Jakarta population of roughly 30 million people, Jakarta's testing rate is still about 1.44 times the WHO testing standard. 

 

Citing the latest WHO situation report on Indonesia, Masdalina Pane of the Indonesian Epidemiologists Association (PAEI) said passing the WHO benchmark should be followed up with proper containment efforts, including "comprehensive surveillance and testing of suspect cases". 

 

She said containment efforts through rigorous testing, tracing and monitoring people in self-isolation – either confirmed cases or direct contacts of confirmed cases – had so far been “unequal” to the risk of easing restrictions in the city. This was why COVID-19 was continuing to spread. 

 

The head of disease control and prevention at the Jakarta Health Agency, Lies Dwi, defended the agency's efforts, saying they were "adequate enough" to prevent new infections. She added that  community health center (Puskesmas) workers monitored self-isolating people at least once a day or every two days. 

 

Budi Haryanto of the Indonesian Public Health Experts Association (IAKMI) said containment measures should be tightened for the latest PSBB extension. 

 

“If many people still lack self-discipline [in following the health protocols], the authorities must improve their surveillance," he said. 

 

Budi also expressed doubt that the COVID-19 health protocols were being stringently enforced in the city, pointing to a shortage of law enforcement personnel. His concern is reflected in the rising number of PSBB violations. 

 

With over 3,000 Public Order Agency (Satpol PP) officers patrolling the capital every day, Jakarta had collected Rp 3.77 billion (US$257,357) in fines from PSBB violators by Wednesday. Half came from more than 12,500 individuals caught barefaced in public. The figure excludes the more than 100,000 violators who opted for community service, like cleaning the gutters and streets, rather than paying a fine as their punishment. 

 

“It is important to have every element in society reminding each other to comply with the health protocols,” said Satpol PP head Arifin, adding that the National Police and the Indonesian Military were ready to assist in enforcing public health measures on the Satpol PP's request.