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Indonesia easing restrictions as new COVID-19 cases drop to lowest since June

Source
ABC News - August 24, 2021

Indonesia is reopening restaurants, malls and places of worship in some areas including the capital, Jakarta, after new coronavirus cases fell sharply from their peak and vaccinations rose.

President Joko Widodo said restaurants and places of worship in parts of the country would be able to operate at 25 per cent capacity and shopping malls at 50 per cent from today.

"Since July 15, cases have fallen 78 per cent. The recovery rate is also higher than new positive cases," he said at a virtual press conference yesterday.

"Seeing that several indicators are starting to improve, the government will consider making gradual adjustments to some restrictions."

For the first time since mid-June, Indonesia reported fewer than 10,000 new coronavirus cases on Monday.

Daily deaths were also under 1,000 for the first time in more than a month.

While the number of tests being done has dropped dramatically, the positivity rate of tests has also fallen.

While cases have declined in Jakarta and some parts of Java, the highly contagious Delta variant of the virus continues to surge on other islands in the Indonesian archipelago, including in parts of Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi and remote Papua.

Experts have warned Indonesia, considered one of the world's COVID-19 epicentres, is a high-risk "hotspot" for the emergence of a new coronavirus "super strain".

Senior minister Luhut Pandjiatan told a separate press conference later on Monday that Indonesia's system of social mobility restrictions – called PPKM – would stay as long as coronavirus remained.

Indonesia's COVID orphans

As many as 11,000 children in Indonesia are thought to have lost either one or both parents due to COVID-19.

The government would assess the situation every week or two and tweak the severity of the restrictions accordingly, he said. "PPKM will continue to apply throughout the pandemic," he said.

COVID-19 restrictions on the popular holiday island Bali, meanwhile, will remain in place, Pandjiatan said, but could be eased in the coming weeks.

Nationally, just over 11 per cent of the population have been fully vaccinated since the South-East Asian nation began its inoculation program this January.

Jakarta reaches 'herd immunity'

On Sunday, Jakarta's deputy governor said the Indonesian capital had reached herd immunity, as a majority of the city's residents were fully vaccinated.

For much of last month, Jakarta was devastated by the outbreak, with inundated hospitals, oxygen shortages and COVID-19 patients dying at home, but in recent weeks case numbers had dropped sharply, while vaccination rates had climbed.

On July 12, Jakarta recorded more than 14,600 infections, but by Sunday the figure had fallen to 700.

"Jakarta has entered the green zone and has reached herd immunity," deputy Jakarta governor Ahmad Rizia Patria told reporters.

The deputy governor was referring to high vaccination rates in the capital, where more than 54 per cent of residents are fully vaccinated and most have received one shot.

Pandu Riono, an epidemiologist at the University of Indonesia said the deputy governor had misunderstood the concept of herd immunity.

"Even if we reach 100 per cent vaccine coverage, the immunity level is still below 80 per cent" he said, adding that vaccine efficacy levels were only about 55 per cent.

Home to more than 10 million people, Jakarta has predominately administered China's Sinovac vaccine, while some residents have received AstraZeneca and Sinopharm shots.

Source: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-24/indonesia-easing-restrictions-covid19-cases-fall-vaccinations/10040140

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