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Poverty a Top Concern, Indonesia Tries to Go Soft on its COVID-19 Lockdown

Ralph Jennings

   TAIPEI, TAIWAN - Indonesia, despite a growing coronavirus caseload, has
   avoided locking down population centers in favor of softer control
   measures to sustain an economy already stressed by poverty.

   The virus hitting most of the world now has sickened 3,293 people in
   Indonesia and killed 280. On Friday, the capital Jakarta ordered a
   two-week closure of offices, and banned gatherings of more than five
   people but did not issue a stay-at-home order and allowed some public
   transit to keep running. Schools and restaurants had been closed
   already.

   Although the order extends to an urban area of about 30 million people,
   other parts of the archipelago, including its mines and palm farms, are
   unaffected. About 265 million people live across Indonesia's 13,000
   islands.

   Officials must mind their country's poverty rate of nearly 10 percent,
   analysts said, since business closures hurt incomes. Yet to ignore the
   deadly virus would let it spread and strain hospitals in rural areas.

   "If we get to the point where they have to go into total lockdown like
   India, or Malaysia, then the economic impact will be much greater,"
   said Rajiv Biswas, Asia-Pacific chief economist at IHS Markit. "There's
   a lot of downside risk for Indonesia right now.

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