The country has recorded 4.9 million cases overall and more than 145,000 deaths.

Health workers in Jakarta, the country's current epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic, are starting to feel the brunt of the Omicron-fueled surge of infections, with hospitalizations climbing and daily new infections surpassing the peak of last year's Delta wave.

Under the current system, countries are "basically on their own" if they need emergency funds, vaccines, therapeutics or diagnostics, and as G20 president this year, Indonesia will seek to change that, Budi told a news conference.

Fatalities from COVID-19 in Indonesia reached triple digits on Friday, a level that was last seen in late September last year, as cases continue to rise, driven in large part by the highly contagious Omicron variant.

As countries slowly unwind their pandemic-era stimulus policies, greater coordination among developed and emerging economies is essential to ensure more inclusive global economic growth, experts from the Think-20 (T20) have said.

Lack of access to technology and digital illiteracy among teachers still complicate online learning, pushing some innovative teachers to find ways to improve distance education methods on their own.

The Education, Culture, Research and Technology Ministry has said that COVID-19 has exposed Indonesia’s deeply rooted problem of unequal access to quality education.

Research on the "Merah Putih" ("Red White") vaccine -- named after the colours of the Indonesian national flag -- is led by Airlangga University and Biotis Pharmaceutical Indonesia.

As the country celebrates National Press Day on Wednesday, President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has called for better management of foreign media in order to create a fairer ecosystem for local platforms.

The government has expressed its support for a draft regulation that would make news aggregators on digital platforms pay publishers for displayed content, in a move aimed at providing a level playing field between domestic news industries and digital platforms.

Under new regulations, supermarkets, malls and restaurants will operate at 60 percent capacity and houses of worship will be reduced to 50 percent of capacity, said Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Pandjaitan. It was not immediately clear when the measures would take effect.

The country has seen a jump in cases, with more than 36,000 infections recorded on Sunday and the bed occupancy rate at hospitals in the capital reaching 63 percent.

Parents previously had no say over whether to send their children to in-person classes, but a government official announced on Thursday that the choice would be theirs again.

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo said he had instructed Cabinet ministers to evaluate prevailing curbs in light of the rising number of COVID-19 cases in the country.

Govt opens up last chance for 758,000 contract teachers to be recruited as civil servants this year, as it looks to remove contract workers from its payroll starting from 2023.

The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) arrested Mochamad Ardian Noervianto, formerly the Home Ministry's regional finance administration director general, on Wednesday for allegedly demanding kickbacks from local officials from Southeast Sulawesi derived from the National Economic Recovery (PEN) funds.

The President has instructed the heads of the country's COVID-19 response to conduct an immediate evaluation of the PPKM in view of the ongoing rise in cases.

Fringe Muslim groups have aired their grievances over a photo exhibition honoring Holocaust victims in North Sulawesi, alleging that it could be used as a way to endorse diplomatic relations with Israel.

Minister Luhut said the government would shift its focus away from containing the virus and toward limiting hospitalization and death rates.

Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister Luhut Pandjaitan also told a news conference that the period of time for coronavirus quarantine for fully vaccinated travellers into Indonesia had been shortened from seven to five days.

Authorities have projected the country will reach the peak of the third wave between late February and early March this year.

Jakarta will remain under prevailing COVID-19 curbs at least for the time being, the government has announced, despite a recent case spike in the city that authorities have called “the first battleground” in the fight against the highly contagious Omicron variant.

The government remains optimistic that the worst-case scenario can be avoided in the coming months, especially leading toward public holidays, when mobility is expected to rise.

More cases of violence against children and women were reported to the authorities in 2021 than in previous years, with most cases occurring in households, Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection Minister Bintang Puspayoga said.

Education experts have called on the government to improve the quality of remote learning, particularly by increasing investment in improving teachers’ skills in holding online classes, as a recent COVID-19 case surge in schools has revealed the current challenges faced by a return to in-class learning.

The government has said it will accelerate the national vaccination drive and ensure that hospitals are well-prepared in anticipation of a third wave of COVID-19 infections fueled by the Omicron variant, marking a shift away from mobility curbs in the state’s pandemic mitigation strategy.

Activists welcomed the House of Representatives' decision to endorse the sexual violence bill after years of it languishing in negotiations and amid rampant sexual assault in the country.

The government has promised to continue accelerating the primary COVID-19 vaccination among the country's target population of 234 million, despite having started rolling out booster shots to the general public last week.

The blasts, which came just over a year after the 9/11 attacks on the United States, ripped through two bars packed with foreign tourists, and remain the deadliest militant assault in Indonesia's history.

The government has sent mixed signals over its travel advisory to Saudi Arabia, with citizens still leaving for their religious pilgrimage despite concerns over rising COVID-19 cases and casualties in the kingdom.