Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment, and PPKM Coordinator for Java and Bali, said on October 18 that 54 districts and cities on these two islands will apply PPKM level 2 and nine other locations apply PPKM level 1.
Amusement parks and cinemas in localities applying PPKM level 2 will be allowed to open to welcome children, provided that parents’ contacts are present in case of contact tracing when needed.
According to Luhut, the number of patients being treated at hospitals or self-isolating at home is currently only 18,000, of which 7,000 are in Java and Bali. Only on October 17, Jakarta, West Java and Bali did not record any deaths, while other provinces recorded less than five deaths per day.
Economic Coordinating Minister and PPKM Coordinator outside Java and Bali Airlangga Hartarto said the pandemic situation in these areas is improving day by day.
Indonesia began imposing an emergency PPKM on July 3. Up to now, this pandemic countermeasure has been extended a total of 11 times and is considered to be eased every two weeks based on a number of indicators such as the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths, the progress of tracing and testing, hospital bed occupancy rates, and vaccination outcomes.
In recent weeks, the number of COVID-19 infections in Indonesia has dropped sharply. In particular, from September 29 to now, the number of new infections has never exceeded 2,000 cases per day. However, the Southeast Asian country is forecast to face a third wave of infections after the Christmas and New Year holidays when people travel a lot.
