Home Minister Tito Karnavian signed a ministerial instruction on Monday declaring Jakarta and its satellite cities to be under PPKM level 2 from Tuesday to Aug. 1. The region had been under PPKM Level 1 – the least stringent of the four-tiered curbs – since the end of May.

The decision to tighten curbs in Greater Jakarta came as the country began seeing a significant uptick in COVID-19 transmissions as a result of the rapid spread of the highly contagious Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5.

Home to more than 20 million people, Greater Jakarta was the epicenter of the last COVID-19 wave, contributing to roughly half of Indonesia's new coronavirus cases.

On Wednesday, however, Tito issued another ministerial instruction declaring that Greater Jakarta would return to PPKM level 1 until early next month, effectively negating his previous policy.

Under PPKM level 2, offices, houses of worship, shopping malls, public facilities, movie theaters and hotels are allowed to operate at 75 percent of capacity while wedding venues are permitted to host events at 50 percent capacity. PPKM level 1 allows those establishments to operate at full capacity.

Home Ministry Regional Administration Development Director General Safrizal Z.A said the decision to revoke Monday's ministerial instruction had been account of the government's strong belief that Greater Jakarta had passed the peak of the current wave of COVID-19 infections.

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