Handling COVID-19 in the capital city of Jakarta with innovation policy: the scale of social restrictions policy

This study aimed to examine the dominant innovation policy elements of the social restrictions to fight the COVID-19 pandemic in Jakarta. The data was obtained using a Computer-Aided Qualitative Data Analysis Software named the NVivo 12 Plus application, accompanied by purposive sampling from four online media sources. These sites, namely Detik.com, Kompas.com, Liputan6.com, and Kumparan.com, were accessed for their provision of information about the COVID-19 social restriction policy in DKI Jakarta. Subsequently, the results showed that the Jakarta government's decision on the Large-Scale Social Restriction-PSBB Stage 1-5 and PPKM Stage consider relative advantage and trialability aspects. Following the proposed policy design, the Jakarta Government expects an easier adoption of the innovation in slowing the spread of the virus. Relative advantage and trialability were revealed to enable developing countries to manage or control the number of pandemic cases and the ensuing economic impact, as well as innovate their policies in practical cases based on the field situation. This study only focused on Jakarta as one of the South East capital cities that successfully dealt with COVID-19. Therefore, future studies should obtain policy designs from other continents that successfully tackled the pandemic in different situations.

Automated summary

This study examines the innovation policy elements of the social restrictions implemented in Jakarta to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. The results show that relative advantage and trialability play crucial roles in the Jakarta government's decision-making process to ensure the successful adoption of innovation in slowing the spread of the virus.