COVID-19 pandemic situation in Indonesia faces the same complexities with countries such as India and Brazil due to the developing economy and vast population. One fundamental factor that limits the Indonesian government response in handling the pandemic is the nation's geography. Indonesia is the largest archipelagic state globally, with 267 million people scattered over 17 thousand islands. On the paper, a swift and strict island lockdown on Java – contributing to over 60 per cent of total positive cases (Indonesia COVID-19 Task Force, 2020) – in the first few days of the pandemic would be effective halt the spread of the virus. Due to the government wavering response since the first two confirmed cases was recorded on 2 March in Jakarta (Ihsanuddin, 2020), the pandemic went out of control. It spread to the entire 34 provinces of the archipelago, making outbreak response more difficult. People's mobility within islands is difficult to control, due to the strong presence of the informal sector within the Indonesian economy, which I will elaborate on in the following section.