Prevent Crowds By Turning Off Street Lights, In Jogja There Will Be More Park Lights Extinguished

YOGYAKARTA - Various efforts to limit people's activities and mobility continue to be carried out by the Yogyakarta City Government. The city government has added the location for the park lights to be extinguished after previously being implemented along Jalan Malioboro since the beginning of the Emergency PPKM.

"Based on the results of coordination with various parties, it was decided to turn off the lights in a number of parks and other roads, such as on Jalan Diponegoro, Sudirman, and Suroto," said Yogyakarta Deputy Mayor Heroe Poerwadi, quoted by Antara, Wednesday, July 14.

According to him, the purpose of turning off the park lights is so that there are no residents' activities at night so that the potential for crowds to appear can be further suppressed as an effort to prevent the transmission of COVID-19.

In addition to garden lights, Heroe also said that he would ask offices and shops to reduce the light points that are usually turned on at night.

"Hopefully, people will continue to reduce their activity and mobility at night. It's better to just stay at home," he said.

To ensure public safety is maintained even though many locations have their lights turned off, Heroe said that security patrols are still carried out routinely with the assistance of the police.

"The blocking on a number of roads that is enforced 24 hours is also an effort to maintain security," he said.

In addition, the city government will also add blocking points that are enforced 24 hours.

During the Emergency PPKM, the command posts in the RT or RW are also asked to limit people traveling by limiting access in and out of residents from the RT or RW.

"If there are many entrances to an area, it would be better if access to enter and exit is limited. Only one or two doors so that people's mobility is more controlled," he said.

Until more than a week of the implementation of Emergency PPKM, Heroe said, the cure rate for COVID-19 patients in the city of Yogyakarta still needs to be increased because it is currently in the range of 66 percent.

"This condition is due to the rapid increase in cases in the last two to three weeks. The average patient takes about two weeks to recover, so it is hoped that the recovery rate can increase in the next two weeks," he said.

Previously, the average recovery rate for COVID-19 patients in Yogyakarta City reached 80 percent.