Among them is Yogyakarta Governor Hamengkubuwono X, who is also the Yogyakarta sultan. He said his administration was thinking of imposing a full lockdown in the province after seeing a continuing rise in cases following the Idul Fitri holiday. The governor acknowledged that the current micro-scale public activity restrictions (PPKM Mikro) have not been enough to curb the spread of the coronavirus as the mobility rate in the province was still high during weekends.

“The only way out is a total lockdown,” Hamengkubuwono told local media on Saturday. “If controls in RT [neighborhood units] and RW [community units] are failing, what else could possibly be done? We [local administration] couldn’t find a way out [within the PPKM scheme].”

Meanwhile, Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan had earlier said that local restrictions would not be enough to slow down COVID-19 transmissions in the city, as the virus had spread to other regions as well.

Read also: Calls mount for lockdown as Indonesia battles surge in COVID-19 cases

However, regional leaders do not have the power to impose tighter wide-scale restrictions. Prevailing regulations allow the health minister to implement stringent restrictions, while the home minister is authorized to extend the implementation of PPKM.

Indonesia reported 13,737 new cases on Sunday, another record high in new confirmed cases reported four days in a row, with Jakarta, West Java, Central Java, East Java and Yogyakarta being the biggest contributors. It was the highest number of daily cases in the last six months since the country recorded over 14,500 cases on Jan. 30.

Authorities suspect that transmission was likely exacerbated by the more transmissible Delta variant, which has been detected in Jakarta, Central Java and East Java.

However, the government has no plans for another round of large-scale social restrictions (PSBB), let alone full lockdowns, and instead insists on implementing the more lenient PPKM.

The Jokowi administration has tried various approaches to reduce infection since the pandemic hit Indonesia in March last year, from imposing the PSBB to the PPKM — but never a full lockdown due to fears of economic collapse. Full lockdowns also require the government to provide aid to people.

Read also: Yearender 2020: What went wrong with Indonesia’s virus response?

“The government has already extended the PPKM Mikro policy. Local administrations just need to optimize the implementation,” Health Ministry spokesperson Siti Nadia Tarmizi told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

Some regions have exhausted any possible means within their power under the PPKM scheme to slow down transmission. But the adjustment can accommodate only so much.

Makhyan Jibril Al-Farabi of the East Java COVID-19 task force said police and military personnel had been deployed to help enforce PPKM measures in the province. Authorities have also limited the movement of people entering and exiting four districts in Bangkalan regency, Madura Island, where cases and hospitalizations have increased in the weeks following Idul Fitri.

But these steps have not been able to reduce the bed occupancy rate in Surabaya hospitals, which had reached 76 percent by Saturday, as they have also had to treat patients from Bangkalan.

“The PPKM Mikro policy has been effective but not during the period after the long [Idul Fitri] holiday,” Makhyan said.

Read also: Indonesia rules out large-scale restrictions for post-Idul Fitri COVID-19 surge

West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil banned entry to Greater Bandung, which will start on Monday, after the provincial capital Bandung reported having less than 20 percent of its hospital beds available. Bandung's tourist attractions will also be closed from June 17 to July 1.

“Although the stricter measures introduced were only for Greater Bandung, other cities and regencies in the province must still remain on alert,” West Java Health Agency disease control and prevention head Marion Siagian said on Saturday.

Fresh pressure comes from experts, civil group

Calls for stricter restrictions have been growing among experts and the wider public, with volunteer group LaporCOVID-19 initiating an online petition demanding that Jokowi impose lockdowns.

The group said it had received overwhelming requests for help from Greater Jakarta and Greater Bandung residents who were scrambling for information on treatment as many health facilities were full.

The group also reported that a patient from Indramayu, West Java, had died on Tuesday while trying to find a hospital.

“The patient went to five different hospitals but was turned away because the hospitals were full."

Five medical associations, including the Indonesian Society of Respirology (PDPI) and the Indonesian Cardiologist Association (Perki), earlier said that tighter restrictions were necessary to help the country's overwhelmed health facilities.

The World Health Organization, in its situation report on Indonesia released on Wednesday, noted that the country's drastic increase in bed occupancy rates was a major concern and necessitated the implementation of stricter COVID-19 curbs, like the PSBB.

“With increased transmission due to variants of concern, urgent action is needed to contain the situation in many provinces,” it said.

Vaccine over lockdown

With no full lockdown nor PSBB in sight, the government appears to be relying on its ambitious plan to fast track vaccination drives.

Jokowi recently declared that 1 million people were to be vaccinated each day starting in July. The plan, according to Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin, will involve local administrations to help administer 600,000 shots per day, and the police and the military for the remaining 400,000 jabs.

Read also: Jakarta expedites jab drive as cases spike

But experts are skeptical, saying this was an “unrealistic” target and accusing the government of not looking enough into vaccine hesitancy and the shortage of imported vaccines, let alone the more transmissible virus variants that have been detected in several regions and might affect the effectiveness of the vaccines.

Experts believe herd immunity may take years to achieve, especially without sufficient containment efforts to bring down the virus reproduction number.

By Sunday, 12.2 million out of 40.3 priority recipients had received their second dose in the current phase of the vaccine program, which generally focuses on civil servants, health workers, senior citizens and essential workers.

The government aims to vaccinate 181.5 million Indonesians aged 18 and above, roughly 67 percent of the country’s 270 million population, to achieve herd immunity by mid-2022.