The Indonesian authorities will impose two weeks of increased coronavirus restrictions in parts of its most populous island of Java from Jan.11, including the resort island of Bali, to support hospitals and reduce fatality rates, officials report noted.
“Some of the measures include changes to opening hours for malls and limited capacity at restaurants and places of worship,” the chief economic minister, Airlangga Hartarto, said.
COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia is part of the ongoing worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). It was confirmed to have spread to Indonesia on 2 March 2020, after a dance instructor and her mother tested positive for the virus. Both were infected from a Japanese national.
With over 267 million people in Indonesia. The caseload of infections reached 788,402 while mortalities amounted to 23,296. The most populous Muslim-majority country on Wednesday declared registering 8,854 new cases with the novel coronavirus in addition to 187 newly registered deaths. Ranking third in Asia and 17th in the world.
Review of data, however, indicated that the number of deaths may be much higher than what has been reported as those who died with acute COVID-19 symptoms but had not been confirmed or tested were not counted in the official death figure.
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Instead of implementing a nationwide lockdown, the government had approved large-scale social restrictions (Indonesian: Pembatasan Sosial Berskala Besar, abbreviated as PSBB) for some regencies and cities. Starting from late May 2020, they began to apply new normal, along with another green and yellow zone regions. This policy received much criticism and is considered as a ‘disaster’ due to the still increasing number of cases.
The global health crisis has had significant impacts on the Indonesian economy. Unemployment will continue rising unless the government increases support to tourism and other service industries, in which nearly half of all Indonesians work, as they face another round of COVID-induced restrictions.
To combat falling non-oil and gas exports, the government may encourage industries to refocus: as one of the world’s largest textile producers, Indonesia could capitalize by continuing to ramp up facemask production. The Indonesian rupiah’s valuation will continue to fluctuate, as it has throughout past months, as Indonesia struggles to bounce back from the pandemic.
