The surge of COVID-19 in the middle of 2021 in Indonesia, made the Indonesian Government decided to implement the Emergency Public Activity Restriction (PPKM Darurat). This study aims to understand the impact of the Indonesian Government’s communication strategy during the implementation of Emergency Public Activity Restriction (PPKM Darurat) on the compliance of the East Java people towards health protocols. By using the assumption of the governmental communication theory (with Behavior Change Communication approach),, this study focused on the impact of communication in the aspect of cognitive, affective, and behavior of the people of East Java. Done with a quantitative method with a case study of the people of Surabaya and Malang city, the result of this study shown that there is a significant impact on the compliance of the East Java people towards health protocols caused by the Indonesian Government’s communication strategy during the Emergency Public Activity Restriction (PPKM Darurat). According to the survey results, the communication strategy implemented by the Indonesian Government is impactful to influence the behavior of the people to comply the health protocols in attempt to control the COVID-19 pandemic situation.

Keywords

Government, Communication, East Java, COVID-19 and Behavior Change.