Indonesia will no longer require people to mask up outdoors, its president said on Tuesday, as COVID-19 infections decline in the Southeast Asian country.
As "the pandemic is getting more and more controlled," President Joko Widodo said in a statement that masks are no longer required outdoors.
But masks must still be worn indoors and on public transportation, he said, also recommending that the elderly and those with underlying health conditions or coughs continue to use them as well.
The new mask rules are set to take effect on Wednesday.
Indonesia will also ease testing requirements for foreign and domestic travellers, the president added, without giving details.
The latest easing of pandemic restrictions in Indonesia follows countries like Singapore, South Korea and Malaysia which also dropped their outdoor mask mandates in recent weeks.
Indonesia's daily COVID cases have declined since the last peak in February, although the government has said it is monitoring the possibility of an uptick after the annual mass exodus during the Eid-al-Fitr holiday earlier this month.
The Palestinian foreign ministry condemned on Sunday an Israeli decision to recognise more than a dozen new settlements in the occupied West Bank, upgrading existing neighbourhoods to independent settlement status.
Pope Francis left Rome's Gemelli hospital on Sunday following a five-week stay to be treated for pneumonia, making his first public appearance since February 14 by waving to well-wishers from a balcony moments before he was discharged.
A Turkish court jailed Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu on Sunday pending trial on graft charges, state media and other broadcasters said, in a move likely to stoke the country's biggest protests against President Tayyip Erdogan's government in more than a decade.
An Israeli airstrike in southern Gaza killed Hamas political leader Salah al-Bardaweel on Sunday, officials of the group said, as residents reported an escalation in Israel's six-day-old military campaign.
Ukrainian and U.S. officials are expected to meet in Saudi Arabia late on Sunday to discuss a possible partial ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia, part of an escalating diplomatic push by U.S. President Donald Trump to end three years of war.
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