TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The government decided to extend the enforcement of the micro-scale public activity restrictions or Micro PPKM until April 5, 2021 through the issuance of the Home Affairs Ministry’s Instruction No. 6 of 2021.

“We announce that this (restriction policy) is extended. We will extend it from March 23 to April 5,” said the Chairman of the COVID-19 Handling and National Economic Recovery Committee (KPC-PEN), Airlangga Hartarto, in an online press conference, Friday, March 19.

Airlangga explained the number of provinces applying the policy was increased from 10 to 15 provinces. The five new regions are South Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan, North Sulawesi, East Nusa Tenggara, and West Nusa Tenggara.

The policy was extended as the government deemed it successful in suppressing the spread of the coronavirus infection rate for the past 10 weeks, which was evident from the declining number of new cases. “The highest number of active cases was recorded on February 5, 2021. After that, the figure dropped by 25.42 percent,” he added.

The hospital bed occupancy rate (BOR) of COVID-19 hospitals, the recovery rate, and the case mortality rate in the ten provinces under Micro PPKM also showed improvement.

Airlangga opined these were attributable to the health protocol disicipline among society. “And of course it is parallel with the effectiveness of the vaccination,” he added.

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EGI ADYATAMA