Covid-19 brakes, Jakarta reopens to tourism

Declining cases, more than 20% of the adult population vaccinated with two doses. An app has been set up to check the vaccination certificates of foreign visitors. Operators in Bali hope for recovery after a year and a half of paralysis.

Jakarta (AsiaNews) - The vaccination campaign is advancing in Indonesia and the Delta variant of Covid-19 is also starting to slow down considerably. With 41.79 million people fully vaccinated, the country has now exceeded 20% coverage of the adult population. The result is that the effects are beginning to be seen: the other day 2577 new cases were recorded, the lowest figure since mid-May, while active cases have fallen below 100 thousand. In all, since the beginning of the pandemic in the country there have been over 4.17 million infections and 139,165 victims of Covid-19.

In this context, the Jakarta government is looking at the reopening of activities, with particular attention to tourism. In the last year and a half the beaches of Bali have been brought to their knees by the pandemic and now the aim is to reopen as soon as possible to the flow of visitors from abroad. Just the district of Bali, along with those East Kalimantan and North Kalimantan, were the first to see the risk level mitigated, while the situation remains more serious in the districts and cities of Banda Aceh, Bangka, Medan, Kota Baru, Palangkaraya and Palu.

"The situation is improving a lot - Parman, an entrepreneur who runs a restaurant business in Bali, tells AsiaNews - The roads are now accessible, the first local tourists are arriving, we hope soon foreigners will return.

The new PeduliLindungi app, released on Monday by Jakarta's authorities, aims at facilitating access to offices, but also to restaurants, shopping malls, cinemas and amusement parks. It will be usable by both Indonesian citizens and foreigners. Tourists can also register to validate certificates issued for vaccinations that took place outside Indonesia. For foreigners, the procedure will be carried out by their embassy.