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View all search resultsGovt faces calls for return to stricter pandemic curbs
Health experts and medical professionals have urged the government to impose stricter curbs as Indonesia continues to record an increase in new COVID-19 infections.
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Medical workers prepare to take swab samples from people at a drive-thru COVID-19 test station in Jakarta on Feb. 7. (Reuters/Willy Kurniawan)
T
he government faces mounting calls by health experts and medical professionals to reimpose stricter curbs as Indonesia continues to see a worrying increase in new COVID-19 infections fueled by the spread of the highly contagious Omicron subvariants BA/4 and BA.5.
The country has recorded more than 1,000 new daily COVID-19 cases for the past eight consecutive days, and on Wednesday, authorities recorded almost 2,000 new cases, the highest since early April.
The weekly caseload has increased by more than 100 percent in the past week from 3,688 cases to 7,587, while active cases nearly doubled during the same period, from 4,734 cases to 8,594. The number of fatalities has risen as well, from 38 deaths last week to 44 deaths this week.
The Indonesian Doctors Association (IDI) has called on the government to review its eased mask-wearing mandate to curb the spread of the virus.
“Considering the current circumstances, we advise the public to mask up both indoors and outdoors,” Erlina Burhan, a member of IDI’s central board, said on Tuesday as quoted by kompas.com.
Just last month, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo announced that mask-wearing was no longer required outdoors, though he still recommended masks for crowded outdoor spaces, as well as for the elderly and those with underlying health conditions and acute coughing.
Erlina also called on the government to reimpose mandatory polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests for domestic travel, which were lifted last month as well.
