Jakarta back in business, infections rise - Herald Sun

Restaurants, shops and transport services are back up and running in Indonesia's capital as restrictions are eased further despite the country posting its biggest daily spike in coronavirus infections two days earlier.

Offices in Jakarta, the epicentre of Indonesia's outbreak, were operating with limits on employee numbers while traffic wasted no time returning to gridlock, with cars bumper-to-bumper and clusters of motorcycles sandwiched between lanes.

After two months without businesses, the easing of curbs was a welcome relief for many, among them Kusnoto, who for 14 years has run a small streetside restaurant.

"Thank god today I can reopen my business, but I'm not sure how the customer traffic will be," said Kusnoto, 60, who like many Indonesians uses only one name.

Indonesia's main stock index gained up to 2.5 per cent and hit its highest in three months on Monday as investors cheered the resumption of more business activities.

But it remains the worst-hit country in East Asia outside China, with 32,033 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus and 1,883 deaths. Indonesia has had no national lockdown and cities have been allowed to impose restrictions, though not all are strictly followed.

Eating at Kusnoto's restaurant, engineer Abdul Rahman, 30, said he was happy with what Indonesia calls a new normal, but concerned about public complacency.

"I'm quite worried, to be honest," he said, sitting beside a co-worker. "Many people are just forgetting this existence of coronavirus and think it's over."

Originally published as Jakarta back in business, infections rise

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