The Indonesian government has extended the mandatory quarantine period for international arrivals from seven days to ten in an attempt to contain the spread of the Omicron variant.
Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, who is leading the government’s COVID-19 response in Java and Bali, said the longer quarantine period was ordered by President Joko Widodo.
The increased quarantine period is the latest in a series of government responses to manage the latest developments in the pandemic.
Earlier this week, the central government banned flights from eight African countries as well as Hong Kong.
Prior to the emergence of the Omicron strain the government had flagged a partial lockdown over the Christmas holiday period to limit the spread of infection caused by the mass movement of people around the country.
This came despite pleas from a number of Balinese travel agencies to ease restrictions in the interests of attracting international visitors to the island.
In a further sign the government is trying to stay ahead of a fresh outbreak, the Health Ministry is working on enhancing its Covid-19 surveillance to effectively detect and contain the spread of Omicron at an early stage as more countries across the globe detect the new virus variant.
Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said authorities are aiming to improve its relatively poor contact tracing by working together with village supervisory non-commissioned officers (Babinsa) and public order officers (Bhabinkamtibmas).
“We need to strengthen our contact tracing and increase the number of patients’ close contacts who were tested for Covid-19 so we can find new cases as soon as possible,” Budi said.
Source – The Jakarta Post, The New Straits Times