Massive protest in Jakarta tomorrow feared will worsen COVID-19 situation

The province of Jakarta has recorded the highest overall positive cases in the republic to date at 82,190, including 1,211 new cases reported within the last 24 hours, and recorded new daily cases of around 1,000 daily since the end of August.

The students and workers are scheduled to hold a large-scale demonstration tomorrow in front of Istana Negara, Jakarta, to protest the Omnibus Law Ciptaker (Omnibus Law on Job Creation) passed by the Indonesian Parliament on Monday.

According to local media quoting statements issued by the National Association of University Student Executive Bodies and the Indonesian trade unions, the demonstration will commence at 10 am tomorrow, to protest against the labour law which they alleged violates workers’ rights, including reduction of compensation for retrenched workers, less annual leave, repeal of the minimum wage and amendments related to the rules of contract workers.

A series of demonstrations attended by thousands of students and workers has been held since yesterday in several other cities in Indonesia.

Many are now worried that the demonstration will worsen the spread of the COVID-19 virus in the republic which to date has recorded 4,538 new positive cases in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of cases in the republic to 315,714.

Based on the data published by the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) on its official twitter account @BNPB_Indonesia today, another 142,213 patients are still under surveillance for the virus.

Between noon yesterday and noon today, a further 98 fatalities occurred, bringing the total cumulative deaths in the republic to 11,472.

The province of East Java recorded the highest total death toll at 3,350, followed by Jakarta (1,817), Central Java (1,462) and the rest in other regions in Indonesia.