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As infections spiked, Indon tightens COVID-19 curbs
By Nidz Godino
“Don’t panic when you see an increase in cases,” Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said Indonesia will tighten social restrictions in Jakarta and Bali, as well as in two other cities on Java island, in a bid to contain spike in coronavirus infections.
Separately, the transport ministry clarified that overseas tourists would still be able to enter the country through capital Jakarta, after the ministry indicated otherwise in a statement issued earlier.
It earlier said foreign tourists and Indonesians returning from holidays abroad would be temporarily banned from flying into Jakarta, as a further precaution against COVID-19.
The new statement said tourists with right paperwork could arrive through Jakarta and Bali airports, as well as via Batam and Tanjung Pinang in the Riau Islands near Singapore.
The Southeast Asian country has seen a jump in cases driven by Omicron variant, with more than 36,000 infections reported on Sunday and the bed occupancy rate at hospitals in the capital reaching 63%, up from 45% in January.
Senior cabinet minister Luhut Pandjaitan, who oversees pandemic response in Java and Bali, announced tightened social restrictions in greater Jakarta, Bali, as well as in the city of Bandung in West Java and Yogyakarta in Central Java.
Under the new regulations supermarkets, malls and restaurants will operate at 60% capacity, while capacity at houses of worship will be reduced to 50%, he told a streamed news conference.
Three provinces, including Jakarta, Banten and Bali, had already exceeded infection rates seen during the wave driven by the Delta variant last July, but hospitalizations had remained relatively low, Budi told same news conference.
Indonesian officials have warned surge in cases may not peak until late February.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong residents crowded supermarkets and neighborhood fresh food markets on Monday to stock up on vegetables, noodles and other necessities after a record number of COVID-19 infections in the city and transport disruptions at the border with mainland China.
The city of 7.5 million people reported a record 614 coronavirus cases on Monday, in the biggest test yet for the Chinese territory’s zero-COVID strategy.
Hong Kong imports 90% of its food supplies, with the mainland its most important source, especially for fresh food. Consumers have already seen a shortage of some foreign imported goods, including premium seafood, due to stringent flight restrictions.
The government tried to assuage worries of shortage of food from mainland after some cross-border truck drivers tested positive for coronavirus.
Several drivers have been forced to isolate but overall fresh food supplies “remained stable,” despite a drop in supply of vegetables to certain markets, it said on Sunday.
At a fresh food market in Tin Shui Wai, in the city’s northern New Territories, vendors said there would be no vegetables in coming days, prompting customers to buy up produce. “Of course you have to buy…there will be no vegetables for tomorrow… trucks can’t come here…so the vegetables are very, very pricey,” a bystander said.
A vegetable vendor, said disruptions had seen supply drop by 30%, including for products such as Chinese flowering cabbage. He cautioned that hundreds of kilograms of vegetables due to arrive on Tuesday may not be able to arrive.
“I still don’t know if they can cross the border. If there is none, the prices will further increase or we have nothing to sell.”
Shelves stocking vegetables, tissues and cup noodles were bare at several supermarkets across the former British colony with customers stocking up over concerns that products would be even harder to get in the coming days.
“The COVID-19 situation is severe…and there are no veggies, so I stockpile a bit,” another bystander said.
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