Indonesia imposes emergency restrictions. (IANS Photo)
JAKARTA, JULY 7 (IANS): Indonesia on Wednesday imposed stricter Covid-19 restrictions in 43 cities and districts outside the islands of Java and Bali amid the ongoing second wave of the pandemic, a minister said.
At a virtual press conference, Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto said that with the new restrictions, the government is planning to add more hospital bed capacity and reduce the public mobility in cities and districts from Sumatra island in the west to the easternmost Papua, reports Xinhua news agency.
"The public mobility is tightened so that there are no activities at night. All community activities must be stopped after 5 p.m.," he said.
According to chief of the national Covid-19 task force and National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) Ganip Warsito, over 450,000 security personnel have been deployed in those areas.
Hartarto said President Joko Widodo has said the new restrictions in those areas would be upgraded to be "emergency" restrictions, which are currently implemented in both Java and Bali, if the health facilities in the areas were overwhelmed.
Indonesia on Wednesday recorded 34,379 newly-confirmed cases of Covid-19, marking the highest daily spike.
The total tally is 2.37 million, the country's Health Ministry reported.
Meanwhile, the Covid-related death toll added by 1,040, the biggest daily rise since the pandemic began, to 62,908.
