The Indonesian Government has signalled it may be ready to lift the quarantine requirement for inbound travellers in April, as Covid-19 hospitalizations and fatality rates remain under control despite a resurgence in cases.
The required quarantine period will also be reduced from five days to three for incoming travellers who have received three doses of vaccine starting next week, according to Luhut Panjaitan, the cabinet minister in charge of the pandemic response in Java and Bali.
All new arrivals will still be required to provide a negative PCR test result, obtained prior to departure.
“We need to find that balance between the need to maintain health and the need to maintain the economy,” said Panjaitan. “Hospitalization and death rates have been so much lower than” those suffered during the delta outbreak, he said, adding that the omicron variant of the coronavirus is a lot less deadly than the delta strain, which overwhelmed the medical system last year.
His comments were underlined by yesterday’s record 64,718 new daily infections, accompanied by 167 deaths, well below the 2,069 deaths recorded on July 27 at the height of the Delta outbreak.
Source – Bloomberg