The Indonesian government has reversed its decision to increase the lockdown level, locally known as PPKM, of the country’s capital city of Jakarta, as well as its greater areas of Bogor, Tangerang, Bekasi and Depok, alongside the touristic island of Bali. The PPKM level of these areas will again revert to level 1 from level 2.  

The decision was stipulated within Minister of Home Affairs Instruction (inmendagri) No. 35/2022 on the implementation of Public Activity Restriction (or PPKM) in the island of Java and Bali issued on July 6, 2022, which is to remain effective until August 1, 2022. The inmendagri further renders inmendagri No. 33/2022 issued on July 5, 2022, null and void. 

This means that capacities for various indoor spaces such as offices, worship houses and movie theatres have been reverted again to the condition seen in the past month of 100% maximum capacity. 

It is unclear why the Indonesian government decided to reverse course so suddenly. The initial increase of PPKM level issued on July 5 however was taken in response to the resurgence of COVID-19 cases caused by the Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariant of the coronavirus, which saw infections rates increase to above 1,000 per-day since mid-June from the around 300 infections per-day rate in early May. Meanwhile, the death rate has remained relatively low compared to the Delta variant outbreak on August 2021. 

As of July 6, 2022, the number of COVID-19 infections has increased 2,743 from the previous day and 2,045 people have recovered within that period. Meanwhile, the number of deaths was tallied at 4. Furthermore, within the same time frame, 201,643,697 people have received their first vaccinations, or 27,297 more compared to the previous day. 169,232,174 have received their second vaccinations, or 39,727. Lastly, 51,315,655 people have received their third of booster shots, which is an increase of 135,655.