Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, Coordinating Minister for MaritimeAffairs and Investment, and PPKM Coordinator for Java and Bali, said on October 18 that 54districts and cities on these two islands will apply PPKM level 2 and nine other locations apply PPKM level 1.
Amusementparks and cinemas in localities applying PPKM level 2 will be allowed to opento welcome children, provided that parents’ contacts are present in case ofcontact tracing when needed.
Accordingto Luhut, the number of patients being treated at hospitals orself-isolating at home is currently only 18,000, of which 7,000 are in Javaand Bali. Only on October 17, Jakarta, West Java and Bali did not record anydeaths, while other provinces recorded less than five deaths per day.
EconomicCoordinating Minister and PPKM Coordinator outside Java and Bali AirlanggaHartarto said the pandemic situation in these areas is improving day by day.
Indonesiabegan 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 easedevery two weeks based on a number of indicators such as the number ofCOVID-19 cases and deaths, the progress of tracing and testing, hospital bedoccupancy rates, and vaccination outcomes.
Inrecent weeks, the number of COVID-19 infections in Indonesia has droppedsharply. In particular, from September 29 to now, the number of newinfections has never exceeded 2,000 cases per day. However, the SoutheastAsian country is forecast to face a third wave of infections after theChristmas and New Year holidays when people travel a lot./.