Government has now decided to ban crowd gathering public events from December 18th till January 8th 2021 as a preventive measure of spike in corona virus transmission.
Luhut Binsar Coordinating Minister of Affairs and Investments shared that the decision is taken on the basis of significant rise in covid-19 cases, particularly after the long five day weekend in October's end.
"The number of daily new cases and the death toll have continued to increase since the late October [extended break]. Prior to this, we had seen a relatively downward trend," Luhut said on Monday in a meeting with the governors of Jakarta, West Java, Central Java, East Java and Bali.
It was also highlighted by the Minister that the significant rise has been observed in the 8 provinces including Bali, Jakarta, Central Java, East Java, North Sumatra, South Sulawesi, West Java and East Kalimantan.
Luhut specifically addressed to the administration of Jakarta the most affected region by the pandemic to implement a stricter work from home policy which requires 75% of the work force to work from home.
He has also asked Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan to continue limiting the operational hours of shopping malls, restaurants and entertainment venues to only 7 p.m. "Mall owners should provide rent relief to vendors, such as implementing a pro-rate system or a profit-sharing scheme so that the [stricter] policy won’t put an additional economic burden on tenants,” the minister said.
Governor of Jakarta, Anies Baswedan has also been asked by Luhut to ensure the continuation of limited operational hours for shopping malls, entertainment venues and restaurants to 7pm only.
"Mall owners should provide rent relief to vendors, such as implementing a pro-rate system or a profit-sharing scheme so that the [stricter] policy won’t put an additional economic burden on tenants,” the minister said.
Weddings, religious ceremonies and other crowd pulling events also asked to banned and moved online. The 2020 regional elections are also feared to result in a spike in cases, although officials have played this down.
"In rural areas, local governments have to strengthen the implementation of social restrictions on a micro- and community-level scale," Luhut said.
Luhut called special restrictions for Bali for implementation of health protocols at hotels, rest areas and tourist attractions.
"Tourists traveling to Bali by air are required to present negative PCR [polymerase chain reaction] test results, while those traveling by land have to bring negative antigen rapid test results," he said.
However Putu Astawa the head of Bali Tourism Agency stated that celebrations at hotels, restaurants, and tourist destinations for new year will be allowed by the provincial administration in a bid to revive the Island's tourism. However it will be ensured that all celebrations will adhere to strict health protocols of Corona virus.