Authorities in North Jakarta raided a café that remained open despite tightened restrictions, with four people, including an employee, testing positive for COVID-19.
The raid of the unnamed café, which is reportedly mostly frequented by foreign nationals, led to one of the city’s biggest busts of health protocol violations since the Emergency Enforcement of Restrictions on Public Activities (Emergency PPKM) came into effect on July 3.
“This café is predominantly frequented by foreign nationals, especially from Nigeria. We secured 81 people there. Of the 81, 60 were foreigners,” Jakarta Metro Police spokesman Yusri Yunus told reporters yesterday.
The police conducted antigen swab tests on people nabbed at the café, leading to positive results for three foreign customers and one cashier. Follow-up PCR tests on the subjects confirmed the diagnoses.
“This could have been another cluster,” Yusri said.
Furthermore, police said 43 of the foreigners at the café did not have valid stay permits in Indonesia. Immigration has been notified and will investigate this case further.
The café owner may face criminal charges for violating the Health Quarantine Law and the Criminal Code (KUHP) by disobeying emergency health measures, especially as Emergency PPKM explicitly forbids restaurants and cafés from serving customers on site.
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