VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Jakarta. Home Minister Tito Karnavian on Monday issued a ministerial instruction to extend the imposition of micro-scale public activity restrictions (PPKM-Mikro) for the fifth stage in 20 provinces.

Referring to the Ministerial Instruction No.7/2021, the enforcement of PPKM-Mikro, which had been put in place for 12 consecutive weeks, has been extended from April 6 to April 19, 2021.

The PPKM-Mikro policy has so far been enforced in 20 provinces, including Aceh, Riau, South Sumatra, North Kalimantan, and Papua.

For provinces that are yet to impose it, the Home Ministry's instruction suggests that they keep strengthening the implementation of health protocols in their areas.

ANTARA reported earlier that the PPKM-Mikro policy is part of the government's preventive measures to help bring down Indonesia's COVID-19 infection rate.

As of March 28, 2021, Indonesia has set up 7,664 command posts in 15 provinces to impose PPKM Mikro, according to the Indonesian government's COVID-19 task force.

The 7,664 command posts are in charge of prevention measures for 12,619,259 households in 193,550 neighborhood units, the COVID-19 task force revealed.

The PPKM-Mikro policy has been enforced, but all regions must exercise caution in the wake of potential threat of COVID-19 transmission, it added.

In addition to the imposition of PPKM Mikro, the government has launched a nationwide vaccination program since January 13 this year as part of efforts to win the fight against the coronavirus.

The Health Ministry estimates a time period of 15 months will be required to vaccinate about 70 percent of the country's total population under the national program.

"We need 15 months to accomplish it. The time-frame for conducting the vaccination is counted from January, 2021 to March, 2022," the Health Ministry's spokesperson for the vaccination program, Siti Nadia Tarmizi, stated recently.

During the period, the government is targeting to inoculate about 181.5 million people, including 1.3 million paramedics and 17.4 million public sector workers in 34 provinces, she informed.

Tarmizi noted that the first phase of the government's immunization program has been divided into two periods: January-April, 2021 and April, 2021-March, 2022.  (Antaranews)