Jakarta – Home Affairs Minister Tito Karnavian has issued three instructions on the Covid-19 curbs, as Indonesia extends its strict social restrictions.
Indonesia recently has introduced a new Covid-19 alert system. The restriction scaling system ranges from one to four, with level four having the most stringent Covid-19 rules. Over the weekend, President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo decided to add another week to the level four strict social restriction – now lasting until August 2.
In response, Minister Tito issued three instructions that detail which level of restriction will be implemented in a region.
"As instructed by the President, we have extended the social restriction to August 2. We have rolled out three Home Affairs Minister instructions numbered 24, 25, and 26," Tito said on Monday.
The first one out of the three new instructions encompasses the level four and three Covid-19 restrictions in Java and Bali islands. It applies in 95 levels, four municipalities/districts, 33 levels, three municipalities/districts across the two islands.
The second instruction on the list places Sumatera, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Nusa Tenggara, Maluku, and Papua on level four. The instruction affects 45 municipalities/districts in the 27 provinces of the said regions.
Last but not least is a separate instruction regarding the curbs on the regions at levels 3, 2, and 1. In this instruction, Tito also calls for optimizing the Covid-19 command posts in villages and urban wards to curb the transmission.
"In total, about 276 districts/municipalities fall under level three, whereas 64 others are at level two," Tito said.
According to Tito, there is a slight difference regarding the freshly issued instruction on Java-Bali's Level 4 curbs, particularly micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs). These small businesses – from street vendors, phone voucher outlets to barbershops – can open until 8 p.m. with strict health protocols.
"We have never actually banned them before, but we would like to make it clear that this can be carried out with the respective regional government regulations and strict health protocols," Tito said.
Traditional food stalls (warteg), street vendors, or snack shops alike in open areas can stay open until 8 p.m. They also have to limit their dine-ins to only three people at a time. Each patron only has 20 minutes to dine.
The dine-in option is still unavailable for restaurants and cafes in closed areas – whether they have their own location or are inside a shopping mall. They still have to stick to the deliveries or takeaways.
The regional government will regulate further technical details regarding the restrictions, Tito said.
In his statement, Tito hoped the rise in Covid-19 cases would slow down by August 2. If so, this will affect various sectors, including the bed occupancy rate.
"We hope that if everything is effective, we can move forward together. Of course, we hope that the [restriction] level will drop further so it will open up a room for us to do activities, including economic activities," Tito said.