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.
Israel bombarded northern Gaza overnight in some of the heaviest shelling in weeks, causing panic amongst residents and flattening neighbourhoods in an area from which the Israeli army had previously down its troops, residents said on Tuesday.
Russia launched a drone attack on Ukraine that injured seven people in the Black Sea port of Odesa, two of them children, and also targeted Kyiv, the capital, Ukraine's military officials said early on Tuesday.
A Delhi court on Tuesday extended the pre-trial detention of Indian opposition leader Arvind Kejriwal until May 7 in a corruption case, the legal news website Live Law reported.
Taiwan's quake-hit eastern county of Hualien was rattled by more than 200 aftershocks late on Monday and early on Tuesday, but only minor damage was reported and no casualties and major chipmaker TSMC said it saw no impact on operations.
Two Malaysian navy helicopters collided in mid-air during a rehearsal for a naval parade on Tuesday, killing all 10 crew members aboard, the navy said in a statement.