Indonesian police block the streets
>>JAKARTA: Indonesian police threw up road blocks and more than 400 checkpoints on the islands of Java and Bali to ensure hundreds of millions of people stayed home yesterday, the first day of stricter curbs on movement to limit the spread of Covid-19.
As it battles one of Asia’s worst coronavirus outbreaks, the world’s fourth most populous nation has seen record new infections on eight of the past 12 days, with Friday bringing 25,830 cases and a high of 539 deaths.
“We are setting up (patrols) in 21 locations where typically there are crowds,” Istiono, the head of national traffic police, who goes by one name, told a news conference late on Friday.
“Where there are street stalls and cafes, we will close those streets, maybe from around 6pm until 4am”
Yesterday’s more stringent curbs, from tighter travel checks to a ban on restaurant dining and outdoor sports and the closure of non-essential workplaces, will run until July 20, but could be extended, if needed, to bring daily infections below 10,000.
Indonesia imposed a partial lockdown yesterday in the capital Jakarta, across the main island of Java and on Bali.
Mosques, restaurants and shopping malls were shuttered in virus hotspots around the Muslim-majority country, which recorded more than 25,000 new cases and 539 deaths on Friday, both new daily records.
Experts previously warned that millions travelling nationwide at the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan in May would trigger an explosion of cases.
Indonesia’s daily caseload has more than quadrupled in less than a month. But the country’s official tally to date, which stands at 2.2 million cases and 59,534 deaths, is widely believed to be a severe undercount due to low testing.
More than 21,000 police officers as well as military will fan out across Indonesia’s most populous island of Java and the tourist resort island of Bali to ensure compliance with the new curbs, a police spokesman said.
At the road blocks and checkpoints on the islands, police will conduct random tests and enforce curfews.
Vaccinated travellers with a negative swab test will be permitted to make long-distance journeys, however.
The highly infectious Delta variant first identified in India, where it caused a spike in infections, is spreading in Indonesia and pushing hospitals across Java to the brink.
Indonesia is set to receive vaccines donated by foreign countries to help speed its vaccination drive, which has covered just 7.6% of a target of around182 million people by January.
Until now, it has relied mainly on a vaccine from China’s Sinovac Biotech.
Indonesia’s tally of infections stands at 2.2 million, with a death toll of more than 59,500.
Indonesia expects Covid-19 infections to keep rising for up to two weeks before curbs introduced yesterday on more than 100 million people begin to reduce cases, a government minister said.
“In the next 10 days, in my opinion maybe two weeks, cases can continue to rise” as infections before the curbs took place are now in incubation period, said Luhut Pandjaitan, a senior minister overseeing the government’s Covid19 response.
“This two weeks is a critical time for us,” he said.
Traffic and commuter lines in the capital Jakarta in western Java were much lighter than usual yesterday, but some residents still flouted the curbs to jog and ride their bicycles, even though the main road was blocked.
Jakarta resident Clement, 45, who was strolling the street with his wife, told reporters he disagreed with the curbs, even though he has lost a friend to the respiratory disease.
“We know it’s dangerous, but at least if we want to go to the mall, or somewhere, we should just show our vaccine (certificate) and maybe an antigen (test result),” he said.
With medical facilities near capacity, demand has surged for oxygen and drugs for many people isolating at home, driving retail prices up in pharmacies and online marketplaces.
The health ministry has capped prices of drugs such as Favipiravir, Remdesivir and Ivermectin, Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said.
Authorities are also trying to speed their vaccination drive in the areas with the worst outbreak.