Hi folks, we’re back! How’s your holiday been? This year more than a third of the country took advantage of the loosened Covid-19 travel restrictions to go home for the holidays and meet their families in person. As a result, the government were bracing for some serious traffic jams on the return flow and they were rewarded accordingly. Intercity roads were seeing 3-5x increase in traffic over the Lebaran and traffic backed up for days.
This holiday period also serves as a major test on the country’s Covid resilience. Should the national daily numbers remain in the low hundreds over the next couple of weeks, we may see a formal removal of most restrictions. We say formal because for the past few months it’s been practically back to normal anyway, except, at least in major cities, for mask wearing and location check ins.
Mudik 2022 Reaches Record Numbers
For the first time since the pandemic began, Indonesia allowed people to go back to their respective hometowns to celebrate Eid al Fitr with their families, a tradition known here as “mudik”.
After no mudik for two years, (although many did so anyway), the Transportation Ministry estimated that there could be around 85 million people participating this year. Compare that to the estimated 33.4 million mudikers for the 2019 Eid, months before the pandemic began.
You can pretty much guess what happened next, especially with most feeling safer traveling by private vehicles during a pandemic instead of taking the bus or train.
There were bumper-to-bumper gridlocks on toll roads connecting Jakarta to the rest of Java. People were spending four hours on the 73km Jakarta-Cikampek toll road, a trip that normally takes about an hour. That’s nothing compared to what happened at Merak ferry port, the main gateway to Sumatra. People there were stuck in traffic for 12 hours before they finally could board the ferry.
To anticipate more gridlocks when these mudikers return to the big cities, the government decided to extend the school holidays in Jakarta, Banten, and West Java. Schools were supposed to start on Monday but now they will resume on Thursday (May 12). Meanwhile, the government also decided to allow civil servants to work remotely for the whole of this week.
They did all this in a bid to stop crippling gridlocks from happening over the weekend. Thanks to the government, you can now expect gridlocks to happen over the next few days instead.
The Police apologized after enforcing a strictly one way traffic policy through the Cikampek toll road to Jakarta through Bekasi over the weekend. The abrupt decision caused a massive congestion in the surrounding areas which crippled the West Java city but the police said it was necessary to relieve the congestion on the toll roads.
Bekasi City’s main Kalimalang Road artery was clogged with people trying to get around because they could not use the toll road. It also made it impossible for anyone to go westward from Jakarta to Bekasi.
With the restrictions pretty much lifted, people were flocking to tourism destinations, particularly those who chose to stay in Jakarta. Heavy traffic congestions were observed on the hilly area of Puncak while the seaside tourist hotspot Ancol had to turn people away because they were already full.
Of course, not all tourist hotspots were so keen about observing “strict health protocol”. The beaches of Pangandaran in West Java turned into a sea of people as was the case for other popular beaches like Anyer.
All these crowds and migration from Covid-19 hotspots like Jakarta to low-vaccinated rural areas are making epidemiologists and health experts nervous, saying that the number of Covid-19 cases will surely rise in the next few weeks as infections are detected and reported.
But Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin predicted that the rise will be minimal because of the absence of a new variant of great concern. Let’s hope that is the case.
Planet on Alert for New Hepatitis Strain
An outbreak of severe acute hepatitis of unknown cause may have made its way to Indonesia, possibly killing at least three children in Jakarta, the Health Ministry announced on May 1.
The three, aged 2, 8, and 11, were all treated for liver inflammation at Jakarta's Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital at various times between April 15 and 30. All three had been vaccinated against hepatitis and tested negative for commonly known hepatitis types of A to E.
The health ministry is still trying to confirm whether the children had indeed contracted the new hepatitis variant. The ministry is currently investigating several suspected cases, including that of a 7 year-old girl who died in Tulungagung, East Java under similar circumstances.
Cases of acute hepatitis of unknown cause were first identified at an Alabama hospital in October 2021, when five children were admitted with liver damage.
Since then, it has spread across the globe with more than 200 suspected and probable cases reported in children across 20 countries. More than half of the cases were in the UK, prompting the WHO to declare it as an outbreak on April 15.
The affected children were as young as one month old and as old as 16. About 10 percent needed a liver transplant.
Scientists around the world are racing to identify the cause of the hepatitis, though more than half of the children showed evidence of an infection of adenovirus, a common virus that causes colds, vomiting and diarrhea. Covid-19 infection is also being investigated as a possible cause.
Scientists have ruled out a link between cases and Covid-19 vaccine, since most of the children did not receive and were not yet eligible for the vaccine.
Indonesia Facing WADA Sanctions Again
World Anti Doping Association sent a Corrective Action Report to the Indonesian Anti Doping Organization for failing to meet the 2021 compliance standards yet again.
Unless the IADO becomes compliant before 23 June, Indonesia will be sanctioned for the second time in under a year and forbidden to fly or display the national flag at international sporting events. The country will also be banned from hosting single and multi sport international events.
Last October Indonesia was sanctioned for one year for non compliance but managed to have it lifted back in February this year. However, WADA placed a three month oversight period on IADO to monitor the implementation of compliant procedures. The report was the result of the findings.
The anti doping agency was also reorganized under the current name, previously called Lembaga Anti Doping Indonesia (LADI), with a goal to be more responsive and compliant with WADA. Something it has evidently yet to achieve.
Quick Reads
Anderson .Paak’s new profile picture
The hip hop musician’s Met Gala appearance was compared by so many Indonesian netizens to Indonesian magician, Sutarno, popularly known as Pak Tarno, that he actually acknowledged it on his Instagram account in a story. He subsequently changed his profile picture to Pak Tarno which led the magician to do the same. The two ended up following each other and getting acquainted over IG.
This story gets wilder as you read on
A Lombok man was found in Kendari, Southeast Sulawesi, after apparently hitchhiking on the back of a random car back in March. Search and Rescue team had been looking for the man for nearly two months when they received word that the man had been in Kendari since just before Lebaran, working at a harbor across the Flores Sea to get money to go home. As it turns out, his family said he had been missing for 17 years after leaving his home in 2005.
Ever seen a billion ton of gold?
Sumbawa Timur Mining company announced that they came across the gigantic stash of gold in Dompu, West Nusa Tenggara, and copper after several years of exploration in two separate but nearby locations. One site they said, has a billion ton of gold while the other holds 1.1 billion tons of gold and copper.