TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto said regions outside Java and Bali contributed 46.5 percent of the national Covid-19 confirmed cases. The figure showed an increase of 1.24 percent. The number of new cases in Java and Bali, meanwhile, dropped by 27.08 percent.

“Outside Java and Bali, [the number of cases] in North Sumatra, East Kalimantan, West Sumatra, Papua, and Riau increased,” said Airlangga in a virtual press conference on Monday, August 9.

Airlangga said based on the government’s evaluation, 45 regencies or cities still need to be monitored and so the government prepared centralized isolation centers outside Java by considering the number of existing cases.

The government, he added, would use Pelni ships prepared by the Transportation Ministry in collaboration with BNPB, the Health Ministry, and local governments. The isolation ships would be set in Medan, Bitung, Sorong, and Bandar Lampung.

The Public Works and Housing (PUPR) Ministry would also prepare Wisma Atlet (Athlete’s dorms), Hajj dormitories, training centers, and low-cost flats to be isolation centers in several regions with a rising number of Covid-19 cases.

Airlangga confirmed the level-based public mobility restriction or PPKM outside Java Bali was extended from August 10 until August 23. “Because the situation is different from that in Java where the Covid-19 trend has decreased,” he said.

Read: PPKM Levels 4 and 3 Extended Again Until August 16

MUHAMMAD HENDARTYO