Jakarta, Aug 3 (IANS): The Indonesian government has decided to extend restrictions on community activities, known locally as PPKM, across several regions until August 9 as the country is still fighting the second wave of the covid-19 pandemic that has overwhelmed hospitals.

Initially, the government imposed the policy, previously called PPKM Darurat (emergency community restrictions) on the country's most populated Island of Java and the resort island of Bali from July 3 to 20, reports Xinhua news agency.

The PPKM Darurat was later expanded to some regions that saw surges in new cases until August 2, and the name of the policy was changed to PPKM Level 4, requiring workers in non-essential sectors to work from home and shopping malls to temporarily close.

"Taking into account the development of several indicators of cases this week, the government has decided to continue PPKM Level 4 from August 3 to 9, 2021 in some particular districts and cities," President Joko Widodo said at a virtual press conference on Monday evening.

The Health Ministry has announced that the number of Covid-19 cases in Indonesia rose by 22,404 within one day to 3.46 million, with the death toll adding by 1,568 to 97,291.

During the past 24 hours, 32,807 recovered patients were discharged from hospitals, raising the total number of recoveries in the Southeast Asian country to 2.84 million, according to the ministry.