Jakarta extends state of emergency after surge in coronavirus cases
29 March, 2020
Indonesia's capital Jakarta announced a two-week extension of its state of emergency following a nationwide surge in coronavirus cases, its governor said on Saturday.
Anies Baswedan told reporters on a video conference call that the state of emergency, imposed on Mar 20 to attempt to slow the spread of the virus in Southeast Asia’s biggest city, would be extended until Apr 19.
"We're preparing methods to anticipate all possibilities that can happen in the city," Baswedan said.
"We implore persons of Jakarta to not leave Jakarta, specifically for their home towns."
Indonesia's chief security minister Mahfud MD said on Friday that the government was considering an idea to ban "mudik" - the tradition which sees an incredible number of Indonesians leave towns and cities for his or her native villages towards the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan in May.
Indonesia confirmed 109 new coronavirus infections on Saturday, taking the full total cases in the country to at least one 1,155, a health ministry official said.
Achmad Yurianto, the ministry official, confirmed 15 additional deaths, bringing the full total to 102.
According to government data, a complete of 627 cases have already been recorded in Jakarta and 62 people have died.
The airline AirAsia Indonesia said in a statement posted on its website on Saturday that it would suspend flights starting on Apr 1. Domestic flights are because of resume on Apr 21 and international flights to restart on May 17.
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