Jakarta Mulls Tightening Lockdown ahead of Year-end Holidays

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Jakarta Provincial Government is currently reviewing an option to tighten its lockdown rule—known locally as PSBB—during the long holidays of Christmas and New Year. This is as instructed by Coordinating Minister for Maritime and Investment Affairs Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, as an effort to curb Covid-19 transmission in the capital.

"We are conducting a study for that option. What we have now is Transitional PSBB (partial lockdown) until December 22. Later, we will announce which areas and which units need tightening," Deputy Governor Ahmad Riza Patria told reporters on Wednesday, 16 December.

According to Riza, the study carried out included Luhut's instructions about imposing a stricter work-from-home policy—limiting office attendance to 25 percent. Riza said that the policy will be implemented immediately for the provincial government. "Of course we hope this will also be implemented by the private sector and other government offices," he said.

The central government has decided to reduce the number of people working from offices during the Christmas and New Year Holiday season. The Jakarta Regional Civil Service Agency (BKD) will issue a circular instructing offices to implement a 25-percent maximum attendance to all workers of Jakarta Government Offices.

Jakarta BKD head Chaidir said the circular will be released soon; and the 75-percent work from home policy will be implemented from December 18 until January 8 next year.

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ADAM PRIREZA | IMAM HAMDI