Indonesia imposes emergency restrictions to contain surging COVID-19 cases
JAKARTA, July 3– Indonesia has imposed emergency community activity restrictions, locally known as PPKM, in Java and Bali on July 3-20 to curb the country’s COVID-19 outbreak after the previous policy of micro PPKM proved ineffective. The Health Ministry said on Saturday that Indonesia recorded 27,913 newly-confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours,…
JAKARTA, July 3 (Xinhua) — Indonesia has imposed emergency community activity restrictions, locally known as PPKM, in Java and Bali on July 3-20 to curb the country’s COVID-19 outbreak after the previous policy of micro PPKM proved ineffective.
The number of COVID-19 cases kept increasing in the country at an alarming rate.
The Health Ministry said on Saturday that Indonesia recorded 27,913 newly-confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, the highest daily spike, bringing the total tally to 2,256,851, since the first case was detected in March 2020.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo said on Thursday that the policy is crucially important for the safety of the Indonesian nation and people amid the surge in COVID-19 cases. The current situation requires more decisive measures to stop the spread of COVID-19.
This policy enforces stricter restrictions on community activities than what has been applied so far, said the president.
The Indonesian government has spare no effort to curb the pandemic, along with the implementation of PPKM.
To back up the PPKM, the Finance Ministry increased the budget for the health care to 185.98 trillion rupiahs (about 12.8 billion U.S. dollars).
“The health care is the highest priority in the national economic recovery, and now with the development of vaccination, diagnosis and treatment, the need for health care will increase,” Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati told a press conference Friday.
The government has also decided to deploy 53,000 personnel in a joint force during the PPKM.
Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan said at a virtual press conference on Thursday that the government would penalized anyone who violates health protocols.
Up to now, the Indonesian government has received about 119,726,800 doses of vaccines both in bulk and ready-to-use from different foreign producers, and more arrivals of vaccines are expected in the near future. Enditem