JAKARTA, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- The Indonesian government has decided to upgrade the public mobility restriction protocol, locally known as PPKM, to level 3 alert status, following the wave of COVID-19 Omicron variant.
The country's Coordinating Minister for Maritime and Investment Affairs, Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, told a press conference on Monday that the level 3 restriction was applied in Indonesia's capital Jakarta and its satellite cities of Bogor, Depok, Tangerang and Bekasi, renowned resort island Bali, Yogyakarta, and Bandung.
The PPKM level 3 means that public places such as cinemas, restaurants, shopping centers, and houses of worship are only allowed to receive visitors only up to 60 percent capacity and to close by 9:00 p.m.
Only adult visitors who have been fully vaccinated are allowed to enter those places, where for children, only those who have received their first shot, are allowed to get into.
The decision to elevate the level restriction policy came just days after Bali, the country's most renowned holiday island, reopened for direct international flights from all the countries and regions worldwide.
The Southeast Asian country is seeing a surge in COVID-19 cases since January, driven by the Omicron variant.
Indonesia on Monday confirmed 26,121 new COVID-19 cases, raising its tally of infections to 4,542,601, the country's health ministry said.
According to the ministry, the death toll from COVID-19 in the country rose by 82 to 144,636, while 8,577 more people recovered during the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of recoveries to 4,191,604.
As the Indonesian government is accelerating its national vaccination programs to curb the spread of the virus, more than 186.70 million people have received their first dose of vaccines, while over 131.11 million have taken the second dose. ■