COVID-19 Pandemic In Indonesia

The COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia is part of the ongoing worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). It was confirmed to have spread to Indonesia on 2 March 2020, after a dance instructor and her mother tested positive for the virus. Both were infected from a Japanese national.

By 9 April 2020, the pandemic had spread to all 34 provinces in the country at that time. Jakarta, West Java, and Central Java are the worst-hit provinces, together accounting more than half of the national total cases. On 13 July 2020, the recoveries exceeded active cases for the first time.

As of , Indonesia has reported cases, the second highest in Southeast Asia, behind Vietnam. With deaths, Indonesia ranks second in Asia and ninth in the world. Review of data, however, indicated that the number of deaths may be much higher than what has been reported as those who died with acute COVID-19 symptoms but had not been confirmed or tested were not counted in the official death figure.

Indonesia has tested people against its 270 million population so far, or around people per million. The World Health Organization has urged the nation to perform more tests, especially on suspected patients.

Instead of implementing a nationwide lockdown, the government applied " large-scale social restrictions" ( id, Pembatasan Sosial Berskala Besar, abbreviated as PSBB), which was later modified into the "Community Activities Restrictions Enforcement" ( id, Pemberlakuan Pembatasan Kegiatan Masyarakat, abbreviated as PPKM).

On 13 January 2021, President Joko Widodo was vaccinated at the presidential palace, officially kicking off Indonesia's vaccination program. As of at 18:00 WIB (UTC+7), people had received the first dose of the vaccine and people had been fully vaccinated; of them had been inoculated with the booster or the third dose.

Statistics

Background

On 12 January 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed that a novel coronavirus was the cause of a respiratory illness in a cluster of people in Wuhan, Hubei, China, which was reported to the WHO on 31 December 2019.

The case fatality ratio for COVID-19 has been much lower than SARS of 2003, but the transmission has been significantly greater, with a significant total death toll.

Timeline

From January until February 2020, Indonesia reported zero cases of COVID-19, despite being surrounded by infected countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, and Australia. Flights from countries with high infection rate, including South Korea and Thailand, also continued to operate. Health experts and researchers at Harvard University in the United States expressed their concerns, saying that Indonesia is ill-prepared for an outbreak and there could be undetected COVID-19 cases.

On 2 March 2020, Indonesian president Joko Widodo announced the first cases in the country: a dance instructor and her mother in Depok, West Java. Both of them had held a dance class at a restaurant in Kemang, South Jakarta on 14 February, which was attended by more than a dozen people. One of whom was a Japanese, who was later tested positive for COVID-19 in Malaysia. As Malaysia reported the case, the government of Indonesia began to trace anyone who have had close contact with the Japanese and the infected Indonesians.

The cluster was initially identified as the "Jakarta cluster" or the "dance class cluster", owing to the location of the infection. Since then, confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Indonesia began to increase slowly. By 8 March, a total of 6 people who had attended the dance class were infected by the COVID-19, including one case of repatriated Indonesian from the '' Diamond Princess''. Several COVID-19 cases in West Java and Jakarta were found to have a link with the cluster.

The positive cases first confirmed in March are not the first Indonesians to have been infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus. In January, an Indonesian maid in Singapore contracted the virus from her employer.

The first confirmed death of COVID-19 in the country occurred on 11 March when a 53-year-old British citizen in Bali died. However, a Telkom employee who died on 3 March was found positive on 14 March.

Classifications

Cases

Since 14 July 2020, the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Indonesia classifies people involved with COVID-19 into four levels:
* A suspect is a person showing symptoms of respiratory infections, and has stayed within 14 days in any country or any region in Indonesia with local transmission and/or has established contact within 14 days with a confirmed or probable case and/or requires treatment at the hospital and has no possible diagnosis of other diseases.
* A probable case is a person, alive or deceased, who shows or showed obvious signs of COVID-19 symptoms and awaiting results of his or her swab test.
* A confirmed case is a person whose sample produced positive results based on swab or molecular rapid test. A confirmed case may be symptomatic or asymptomatic. Due to lower accuracy and higher chance of false positives, a positive rapid or antibody test is not counted into the official number of cases.
* A close contact is a person who established contact with a probable or confirmed case between 2 days before and 14 days after symptoms show up, or the date of testing for asymptomatic cases. The close contact must quarantine for 14 days. Reclassification into ''suspect'' may be done should if the person show symptoms.
Other classifications include:
* A recovered case is recorded after a confirmed case is discharged from isolation. For an asymptomatic case, it is 10 days after a sample testing; for a symptomatic case, it is after a swab test or 10 days after onset of symptoms, and at least 3 days after no fever or respiratory difficulties.
* Death is recorded after someone who had been confirmed COVID-19 positive died. People who were classified into probable case's deaths are not counted in the official tally.

Location

According to the Ministry of Domestic Affairs, a regency or municipality may be classified into three levels depending on the severity of COVID-19 cases within the region, according to these parameters:
* The number of positive cases within 14 days
* The number of suspected cases within 14 days
* The number of deaths buried according to COVID-19 protocol within 14 days
* Threat of disease contagions to healthcare workers

Each has a score of 15 points for increasing trends, 20 for stationary trends, and 25 for decreasing trends.

The three levels were assigned to a specific region:
* Red Zone if the total score reaches below 80 points. Large-scale social restrictions may be enforced.
* Yellow Zone if the total score reaches 80 to 95 points.
* Green Zone if the total score reaches 100 points (all 4 parameters show a decreasing trend).

Cases

Confirmed cases

Jakarta became the first province that confirmed COVID-19 cases, while Gorontalo was the last to do so. On 6 July 2020, Jambi became the last province to report a death, 53 days after the penultimate province East Nusa Tenggara did. West Java and Banten had ever reported 16,251 cases and 22,667 recoveries in a day respectively; both are the highest by a single province. Central Java hold the record for death numbers with 679. All six provinces in Java have the highest number of cases compared to other provinces, making it the worst-affected region in the country.

Suspected cases

Several travellers who had visited or transited through Bali later tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 shortly after their return to China, Japan, New Zealand, and Singapore.

An additional 50 to 70 people were put under surveillance after coming into contact with the first two confirmed COVID-19 patients. This number includes those who had visited Mitra Keluarga Hospital in Depok, the hospital the two confirmed patients were previously admitted to before being transferred to North Jakarta.

A 37-year-old man who died in a hospital in Semarang suspected of having COVID-19 reportedly tested negative, and was instead afflicted by swine flu, probably picked up from recent travels to Spain.

In West Sumatra, two people who returned from abroad died at Padang's Dr. M. Djamil Central General Hospital. On 13 March, a woman who was being treated as a suspect of COVID-19 after returning from Umrah died. On 16 March, a 47-year-old man from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia landed at Minangkabau International Airport, showing symptoms of COVID-19. He was subsequently hospitalized at Padang's hospital and died on the same day.

Responses

Central government

Early responses

Indonesia banned all flights from and to mainland China starting from 5 February 2020. The government also stopped giving free visa and visa on arrival for Chinese nationals. Those who live or have stayed in mainland China in the previous 14 days were barred from entering or transiting through Indonesia. Indonesians were discouraged from travelling to China.

Starting on 8 March, travel restrictions expanded to include Daegu and Gyeongsangbuk-do in South Korea, Lombardy, Veneto and Emilia-Romagna regions of Italy, and Tehran and Qom in Iran. Visitors with travel history within these countries but outside the aforementioned regions have to provide a valid health certificate during check-in for all transportation into Indonesia. Despite the restriction on travellers from South Korea, Indonesia was still allowing flights from the country.

The Ministry of Health ordered the installation of thermal scanners for at least 135 airport gates and port docks, and announced that provisioning over 100 hospitals with isolation rooms (to WHO-recommended standards) would begin. Starting on 4 March, Jakarta MRT also began scanning the temperature of passengers entering the stations and denying access to those with symptoms of high fever. Other public places such as mall and school also began to scan people at all their entrances.

After the first victim died, the Indonesian government admitted that they had difficulties in detecting incoming imported cases on airports, doing contact tracing and also location history for each case.

The Indonesian government announced on 4 March that it planned to turn a site on Galang Island, previously used as a refugee camp for Vietnamese asylum seekers into a 1,000-bed medical facility specially equipped to handle the COVID-19 pandemic and other infectious diseases.

On 13 March, the government designated 132 treatment facilities across Indonesia. On 18 March 227 additional hospitals (109 military hospitals, 53 police Hospitals and 65 state-owned enterprises hospitals) were provisioned to cover more patients across the country. The government also established the COVID-19 Response Acceleration Task Force. Doni Monardo has been appointed to lead this team. On the same day, Minister of Home Affairs Tito Karnavian urged all of Indonesia's regional leaders to suspend all non-essential travel to foreign country.

On 15 March, President Widodo called on all Indonesians to practice what epidemiologists call social distancing to slow the spread of COVID-19 in the country. Indonesian tax authorities announced that they would move back the tax reporting deadline to 30 April 2020.

On 16 March, the Ministry of State-Owned Enterprises instructed its employees aged 50 and over to work from home. President Jokowi also clarified that the decision to implement lockdown on cities or regencies are only to be made after consultation with the central government.

As schools were closing in some regions, Minister of Education Nadiem Makarim announced the readiness of the Ministry of Education to assist schools in online learning by providing free teaching platforms. Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani also announced a shifting of infrastructure budget of 1 trillion IDR into healthcare and pandemic prevention.

On 17 March, COVID-19 health protocols have been released to public. Ministry of Foreign Affairs also expanded the travel restrictions to temporary abolish visa free entry to Indonesia for one month and deny transit or arrival for visitors who have been in Iran, Italy, Vatican City, Spain, France, Germany, Switzerland, and United Kingdom within the past 14 days.

On 18 March, the government launched COVID-19.go.id site, an official source of accurate information on controlling the spread of COVID-19 in Indonesia. On the same day, The Ministry of Finance also announced that Kemayoran Athletes Village, a former athlete's housing for the 2018 Asian Games would be converted to house COVID-19 patients who show only mild symptoms after consultation from doctors. The conversion was officially completed on 23 March.

On 19 March, Bank of Indonesia decided to slash the bank rate to 4.5%, in addition to 6 other fiscal policies, in the attempt to shore up the economy amidst the COVID-19 crisis. On the same day, the chief of the Indonesian National Police Idham Azis published a notice for all policeman to enforce social distancing by dispersing assemblies at public places.

On 27 March, the government was mulling over a plan to ban 2020 Idul Fitri ''mudik'' (exodus) to prevent city dwellers from spreading the coronavirus to towns and villages across the archipelago.

On 30 March, President Widodo refused to impose lockdown on Jakarta. Bus routes connecting Jakarta and other cities and provinces will remain open following the cancellation of a plan to temporarily suspend operations of Greater Jakarta-based intercity and interprovincial (AKAP) buses.

On 31 March, Indonesia announced IDR 405 trillion COVID-19 budget, anticipates a 5% deficit in a historic move. The government was to allocate IDR 75 trillion for healthcare spending, IDR 110 trillion for social protection, and IDR 70.1 trillion for tax incentives and credit for enterprises. The largest chunk, IDR 150 trillion, was to be set aside for economic recovery programs including credit restructuring and financing for small and medium businesses.

On 13 April, President Jokowi declared COVID-19 as a national disaster after it infected 4,557 individuals and caused 399 deaths in Indonesia. Prof. Mahfud MD as Coordinating Ministry for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs said the national disaster could not be used as a justification for claiming ''force majeure'' and thereby evading obligations under contracts.

On 21 April, President Jokowi announced his decision to ban the Idul Fitri ''mudik'' (exodus) starting from 24 April to curb the spread of COVID-19 ahead of Ramadan. To help with this effort, travel by intercity bus travel was banned until 31 May, commercial and charter flights until 1 June, sea transportation until 8 June, and long-distance passenger trains until 15 June.

In late April, President Jokowi asked the United States for medical equipment, including ventilators via phone call to President Donald Trump, to which President Trump, on 24 April, responded he would provide and also reiterated the intent to strengthen economic cooperation between the two.

Vaccination efforts

COVID-19 vaccination in Indonesia was started on 13 January 2021, when President Joko Widodo was vaccinated at the presidential palace.

Stimulus policy

To reduce the impact of COVID-19 pandemic to the national economy, the government released a IDR 10.3 trillion stimulus policy to the tourism sector, in the form of ticket price discounts and restaurant tax deductions.
The IDR 10.3 trillion budget is given to provide discounted airplane ticket prices for 10 tourist destinations, such as Batam, Denpasar, Yogyakarta, Labuan Bajo, Lombok, Malang, Manado, Lake Toba (Silangit Airport), Tanjung Pandan, and Tanjungpinang, which applies from March to May 2020. Ticket prices for low-cost airlines are discounted by 50%, medium-service by 48%, and full-service by 45%. Specifically for this ticket price discount, the stimulus fund comes from the IDR 444.39 billion state budget (APBN) for a discounted value of 30% and 25% of passengers per flight. Additionally, there were additional IDR 100 billion ticket discounts paid by Angkasa Pura I and Angkasa Pura II and IDR 260 billion PT Pertamina (Persero) paid through jet fuel price discounts, so the total ticket price stimulus was IDR 960 billion, so that the ticket price could be discounted by 50%.

The stimulus in the form of restaurant taxes was borne by the central government was also provided to the tune of IDR 3.3 trillion. Thus, there was no restaurant tax in the ten tourist destinations above, but as compensation, the local government were to be given a grant from the central government.

Regional government

Area of emergency

* Jakarta: 20 March – 19 April
* Depok: 18 March – 29 May
* Yogyakarta: 20 March – 29 May
* Bogor: 15 March – 29 May
* East Java: 14 March – 29 May
* Banten: 15 March – 29 May
* East Kalimantan: 18 March – 29 May
* West Kalimantan: 10 March – 29 May
* West Java: 19 March – 29 May
* Papua: 17 March – 17 April
* Aceh: 20 March – 29 May
* North Sumatra: 31 March – 29 May
* South Kalimantan: 22 March – 29 May

Large-scale social restrictions

Specific regions can apply for a request for large-scale social restrictions (PSBB/LSSR) to the Ministry of Health alongside proof of endemic and mitigation steps. Should it be approved, a date will be set by the local government and will run for at least two weeks.

Under the current restrictions, all public transportation options must operate with reduced hours and capacity. Non-essential businesses and stores are required to be closed. Restaurants and food stalls are open for takeaway and delivery only; markets and essential business can may open with social distancing. Depending on the area, private transportation requires a limitation of passengers and a mask obligation will also be in effect.''

Aceh

On 12 March, Aceh acting governor Nova Iriansyah advised Acehnese to stay away from vices and activities that are incompatible with religious and Islamic sharia values.

On 15 March, due to the rapid rise of the number of coronavirus infections in the country, the province of Aceh decided to close schools until further notice.

On 16 March, the city of Sabang started to implement travel restrictions to forbid foreign visitors from traveling to their city.

On 20 March, Nova Iriansyah declared a "province-scale" state of emergency in Aceh for 71 days, lasting until 29 May.

Banten

On 15 March, Governor of Banten Wahidin Halim declares "extraordinary event" and decides to close all schools for 2 weeks.

Central Java

On 13 March, the city of Solo in Central Java decided to close all primary schools (SD) and junior high school's (SMP) for next 2 weeks, after three positive cases are found in the city. The mayor of Solo F. X. Hadi Rudyatmo has also declared that the area is under "extraordinary event". On the same day, the Regency of Sragen decided to close all schools from kindergarten to junior high school throughout the regency for at least a week, while closure of senior high school in the regency would be decided by the provincial government.

On 14 March, Central Java governor Ganjar Pranowo decided to close all kindergarten to junior high schools in the province. High schools would remain open during the examination season. The city of Salatiga followed the same decision on 15 March. The city government would also provide a total of IDR 3 billion for medical support.

On 25 March, the governor announced that schools under control of the provincial government will postpone their opening until 13 April.

On 26 March, the city of Solo, Semarang, Salatiga, and Sukoharjo Regency announced that kindergarten, primary, and junior high school's opening will be postponed until 13 April.

On 27 March, despite statements from President Jokowi that lockdowns are the authority of the central government, mayor of Tegal Dedy Yon Supriyono announced that Tegal would be on lockdown. He ordered that 49 road access to the city to be barricaded with movable concrete barriers, and visitors from outside will be thoroughly checked and have to undergo a 14-day quarantine period. On the other hand, the Governor of Central Java Ganjar Pranowo insisted that the blockade will only happen at some part of the city of Tegal, not on the whole city.

DKI Jakarta

On 2 March, in response to the confirmed cases, DKI Jakarta governor Anies Baswedan halted the issuance of permits for large gatherings. These including concerts by Foals, Babymetal, Head in the Clouds, and Dream Theater.

On 13 March, after 69 positive COVID-19 cases, several tourist destinations in Jakarta including Ancol Dreamland, multiple government-managed museums, Ragunan Zoo and Monas were closed for 2 weeks. The Islamic organization Muhammadiyah formed a "command center" allocating 20 hospitals in the country to handle the outbreak, with the center being led by emergency medicine specialist Corona Rintawan.

On 14 March, Jakarta governor Anies Baswedan decided to suspend all school activities and examinations for two weeks in response to prevent further spread of the virus in the capital city of Jakarta.

On 15 March, Jakarta provincial government prepared 500 to 1,000 beds for Patient Under Investigation (PUI) that will be placed on designated COVID-19 treatment facilities.

On 16 March, MRT Jakarta, LRT and TransJakarta started to reduce number of trips, corridors and timetables (06.00 – 18.00), however, this policy was retracted due to long queue in many bus stops and train stations in morning. Odd-even policy will be halted during outbreak.

On 20 March, Anies Baswedan declared a state of emergency in Jakarta for the next 14 days, lasting until 2 April.

On 28 March, Jakarta provincial government extends the state of emergency until 19 April.

On 2 April, Anies Baswedan allocated IDR 3 trillion to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, and the budget will be used to fund the city's fight against the virus up until May this year, by gradually allocating IDR 1.3 trillion and an additional IDR 2 trillion

Jakarta's application for curfew was approved by the Ministry of Health on 7 April and is set to take effect from Friday, 10 April for at least two weeks.

On 21 April, the local government prepared 136 schools as isolation areas for COVID-19 and the policy is currently still a proposal waiting for approval from the Education Office.

On 9 September, Anies decided to reimpose large-scale social restrictions starting from 14 September due to the high spike of COVID-19 cases in the province.

East Java

On 15 March, the city of Malang announced that they will close all schools for two weeks. The closure will begin on 16 March.

On the same day, the Governor of East Java Khofifah Indar Parawansa ordered the closure of all schools throughout the province. Educational institutions were advised to cancel any kind of student exchange until an indefinite time. However national examination in the province would not be postponed.

On 16 March, the mayor of Malang Sutiaji decided to close all access to the city (lockdown), starting on 18 March. As of 16 March, there is no positive COVID-19 in Malang or the province of East Java. He would later clarify that the lockdown only applies to the government of Malang, not the general populace.

On 20 March, Khofifah declared a state of emergency for East Java.

North Sumatra

On 31 March, the provincial government of North Sumatra declared a state of emergency until 29 May 2020.

Papua

On 24 March, the provincial government of Papua decided to close any in and out access to Papua except for logistics and medical workers starting from 26 March for 14 days. Indonesian Minister of Home Affairs Tito Karnavian disagreed with the decision, saying that the central government's advice to the regional governments is not to close transportation, but to ban mass gatherings.

South Sumatra

On 30 March, Jakabaring Athletes Village, a former athlete's housing for the 2018 Asian Games in Palembang, was appointed by the Governor of South Sumatera Herman Deru to be the house of PUM's treatment (''ODP Center''). He named it as "COVID-19 Healthy House" (''Rumah Sehat COVID-19'').

West Java

On 14 March, the city of Depok and Bogor

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