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Govt to ease more curbs after Lebaran policy ‘success’
Government officials are entertaining further pandemic restriction easing as the country emerges out of the Idul Fitri holiday largely unscathed.
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he government insists that this year’s Idul Fitri holiday has been a “huge success” in terms of keeping COVID-19 cases under control, as officials promise to further relax pandemic curbs with due caution.
When presiding over its biggest gamble, allowing the annual mudik (exodus) tradition to resume after a two years’ absence, the government anticipated that some 85 million people would vacate urban centers across Java to visit relatives and celebrate the Islamic holiday in the regions.
Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister Luhut Pandjaitan noted that pandemic indicators have continued to show signs of improvement, even though instances of high public mobility have been known to lead to caseload spikes.
Luhut, who leads mitigation efforts in Java and Bali, said on Monday that the country has consistently reported less than 500 daily COVID-19 cases over the past few days.
Monday saw the COVID-19 task force report 254 cases, just a percentile of the country’s caseload of 64,000 daily infections during the peak of the Omicron wave on Feb. 16.
Other epidemiological indicators such as hospital-bed occupancy rates (BOR), the death rate and the case-reproduction rate have also shown similar trends in decline, Luhut added.
“The conditions caused by the Omicron strain in Indonesia seem to continuously improve. This is due to the effective employment of relevant measures while simultaneously ensuring that economic recovery is maintained,” he proclaimed in a press briefing.
Despite encouraging signs, the senior minister said the government would continue employing its four-tiered public activity restrictions (PPKM) system, but will begin to ease curbs in stages over the coming weeks.
According to a recent province-wide evaluation, there are no regencies or cities under strict level 4 PPKM curbs, and only Pamekasan district in East Java must remain under level 3 curbs, due to lagging vaccination rates.
“PPKM rules will continue to be eased and relaxed, but in accordance with the standard health protocols,” he said.
At the same briefing, Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said that the government would wait a few more weeks before deciding if it wants rework the PPKM system, particularly since the country’s past experiences mitigating holidays with high public mobility have shown that a COVID-19 case spike might only happen between 27 to 34 days after the massive movement of people.
“We are only seven days past Idul Fitri, so we have to wait another 20-25 days to see if we will face a case spike similar to that from [past] year-end holidays,” Budi said.
The minister also said the government would focus its surveillance efforts on detecting new COVID-19 variants, which he identified as the main cause of new waves of transmission.
‘Great success’
Officials have also rejoiced in the successful Idul Fitri holiday mitigation efforts, which have allowed the country to maintain its economic recovery momentum.
According to Coordinating Economic Minister Airlangga Hartarto, who heads the pandemic response efforts outside Java and Bali, the Islamic holiday has resulted in a nationwide 31 percent increase in household spending compared to last year, when the government imposed an intercity mudik ban to prevent high public mobility.
The figure is based on a retail-activity index issued by Bank Mandiri.
“With the increase in mobility over this year’s Idul Fitri, [we also saw] an increase in trade, retail and household spending,” Airlangga said at Monday’s press briefing.
The country continues apace with efforts to reinvigorate the economy amid signs that the pandemic is petering off.
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo told his Cabinet on Monday, however, that ongoing mitigation efforts should be maintained until authorities have the pandemic “100 percent under control”.
The current PPKM system has been extended another two weeks, according to the Home Ministry, although Luhut has said it could be kept in place until further notice.
