Jakarta Reimposes Partial Lockdown from Sept. 14 as Covid-19 Cases Surge

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com – Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan has decided to "pull the emergency brake" by reimposing partial lockdown in the Indonesian capital from September 14 as the city’s Covid-19 caseload continues to climb.

Anies said the decision was made after considering some factors including hospital beds that are almost full and the high mortality rate.

“There are not many options for Jakarta except to ‘pull the emergency brake’ as soon as possible,” Anies said in a press conference broadcast on the city’s Youtube channel on Wednesday, September 9.

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“The Jakarta Covid-19 Task Force meeting has decided that we will pull the emergency brake, which means we are forced to reimpose the large-scale social restrictions [partial lockdown] as we have done at the beginning of the pandemic,” he said.

The governor said that the decision was also in line with President Joko Widodo’s direction, which is to give top priority to people’s health.

“The outbreak in Jakarta is in a state of emergency. The President has said firmly to all of us not to restart the economy before people’s health is under control. He put health as the top priority,” Anies said.

It was previously reported that the latest transition partial lockdown in Jakarta will end on Thursday, September 10. The initiative, which began on June 5 and was extended several times, was taken as part of the city’s preparations to enter a new normal. However, the transition partial lockdown in Indonesia’s capital has now been revoked following the decision to re-impose the large-scale social restrictions.

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Anies said that the current condition of Jakarta is worse than before when the first two confirmed cases were announced in March.