Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister Luhut Pandjaitan, who oversees the government’s pandemic response in Java and Bali, said that the agglomeration areas of Jakarta, Bandung in West Java, as well as Bali and Yogyakarta provinces had all been upgraded to the second-highest restriction level, from PPKM level 2 to level 3 PPKM, for the week ahead.

“This [is] not only because of the increase in cases, but also because of low tracing rates, [the PPKM level in] Bali has also been increased because of a spike in hospitalizations,” Luhut said during a press briefing on Monday.

While Indonesia reported some 26,000 new cases on Monday – a decline from Sunday’s tally of 36,000, the number of new deaths jumped up to 82 from 57 the previous day.

Jakarta remains the largest contributor to Indonesia’s COVID-19 caseload, with more than 12,000 new cases on Monday. Jakarta’s Sunday daily caseload of 15,800 also broke the city’s previous record of 14,600 daily new cases recorded during the outbreak of the Delta variant in July last year.

Bali also recently broke its previous daily caseload record of 1,900 cases in August last year. The resort island, which has just opened its doors to foreign tourists, recorded 2,000 cases on Saturday. 

Bali and Yogyakarta, as well as Jakarta and Banten and West Java, which are host to the cities that make up the Greater Jakarta area, all rank among the provinces with the highest bed occupancy rates (BORs) in the country. 

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