TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Indonesian government has officially extended the emergency state of public activity restriction or Emergency PPKM until July 25. The restrictions on economic activity, meanwhile, will be relaxed on July 26 if the average of daily Covid-19 positive cases shows an improvement.

President Joko Widodo or Jokowi explained the decision was taken following the result of evaluation of the previous Covid curbs that was started on July 3, saying that it was unavoidable. "This [policy] must be taken by the government though it is hard," said Jokowi in a press conference held virtually on Tuesday, July 20.

The Emergency PPKM is done to suppress the number of Covid transmission to reduce the number people flocking the hospitals for treatment. "So the hospitals won't collapse due to overcapacity of Covid-19 patients. And health services for other critical patients will keep ongoing," said Jokowi. He also claimed that during the policy implementation, there was a downtrend in additional cases and hospital bed occupancy.

The emergency PPKM had run for two weeks from July 3 to 20, since the surge of Coronavirus cases which saw over 20,000 additional daily cases.

The Covid-19 restriction policies are implemented across Java-Bali and other provinces with high Coronavirus infections. The government bans the people to transport without vaccine certificate and negative Covid letter.

This mobility restiction also affects businesses in non-essential and critical sectors. They are forced to implement the 'work from home' policy for all of their workers, while the businesses in essential sector may work at the office with a maximum of 50 percent capacity.

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Francisca Christy Rosana