As Indonesia's overall virus caseload continues to rise, Jakarta's governor has moved to restore normalcy by lifting some restrictions. This has raised concerns that reopening too soon could cause the city of 11 million people to be hit with a second wave.
FILE - In this June 2, 2020, file photo, a chili pepper vendor wears a face mask and shield as a precaution against the new coronavirus at a traditional market in Jakarta, Indonesia. As Indonesia’s overall virus caseload continues to rise, Jakarta's governor has moved to restore normalcy by lifting some restrictions, saying that the spread of the virus in the city of 11 million has slowed down after peaking in mid-April.
While Indonesia’s neighbors scrambled early this year to try to contain the spread of the coronavirus, the government of the world’s fourth most populous nation insisted that everything was fine. Indonesia’s southern neighbor Australia and some fellow Southeast Asian countries such as Singapore took action as early as late January that included containment and tracing measures.
Jakarta itself has confirmed more than 8,300 cases and at least 533 deaths, the most in Indonesia. The city had roughly 3,400 new cases in both April and May, and has reported at least 1,037 new ones so far in June.But even though Jakarta seems to have flattened the curve of the virus, other parts of Indonesia, a vast archipelago nation of more than 270 million people, are still seeing their curves rise, due largely to people traveling to these places from the capital.
Still, Jakarta Gov. Anies Baswedan has moved to reopen the city, which imposed large-scale social restrictions on April 10. “According to the graphs, Jakarta is starting to be under control,” he said. Agus Pambagyo, a public policy analyst, said that even though many people have been hit financially by the restrictions in Jakarta, the government should be looking at other factors and increase its testing for the virus before reopening.
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