The Indonesian government has decided to lift its public activity restriction policy on COVID-19 in light of steadily declining infection rates in the country. 

Locally known as PPKM, which stands for Pemberlakuan Pembatasan Kegiatan Masyarakat, the policy that has been implemented since early 2021 was ended on December 30, 2022, in an announcement by President Joko Widodo. 

“Based on our observation of the last 10 months, the numbers show that we have COVID-19 under control. BOR [Bed Occupancy Rate], positivity rate, death rate, all are below WHO limits. Thus, we’ve decided to lift PPKM at the end of this year,” he said in a televised press conference. 

According to Jokowi, as of December 27, daily COVID-19 cases were at 1.7 cases per million population, while the weekly positivity rate was at 3.35%, BOR rate at 4.79% and the mortality rate at 2.39%. Furthermore, more than 74% of the country’s population of 234 million have been fully vaccinated and about a third of the population have received a third dose, according to data from the Health Ministry. 

The removal of PPKM means that the use of masks and the government-controlled PeduliLindungi tracing app is no longer mandatory. However, Mr. Widodo, who is also known as Jokowi, advised citizens to continue wearing masks and to use the app when entering crowded areas. He added that the lifting of the policy did not mean that the nation’s pandemic status was also lifted. 

Before the announcement, the government has significantly scaled down its public activity restriction policies in order to restore its pandemic battered-economy. The country’s GDP contracted to 2.1% in 2020 from a growth of 5% in 2019 as COVID-19 crippled businesses all across the archipelago. However, the government’s mass vaccinations and public restriction policies, as well as economic assistance packages, succeeded in pulling the economy out of a recession, with the country posting a full year growth of 3.1% in 2021. The World Bank expects Indonesia to continue its recovery and accelerate the economy to its pre-COVID level of 5.2% in 2022.