Minister Of Transportation Regarding Christmas-New Year Holiday: The Policy Is To Tighten Health Protocol, Not To Isolate

JAKARTA - Minister of Transportation (Menhub) Budi Karya Sumadi said the government implemented a policy of tightening community activities and movements during the 2021 Christmas and 2022 New Year holidays in order to anticipate the increase in COVID-19 cases.

"The policy is tightening health protocols (prokes) not isolation, because they still take into account the needs of the community that must be met," said Budi Karya, quoted by Antara, Thursday, December 9.

Budi Karya asks all relevant stakeholders to have the same frequency in implementing the mobility tightening policy, which will be applied during the holiday period.

“Don't get caught up in sectoral egos. We must communicate this well so that the public understands and can accept this policy,” he said.

The Minister of Transportation explained that, as President Joko Widodo hopes to maintain the current low level of COVID-19 cases, it is necessary to implement a tightening policy to prevent an increase in cases after the holiday period.

In general, the policy of tightening mobility during this period will be applied to all modes of transportation, whether on land, sea, air, or rail.

Currently, the Ministry of Transportation is still carrying out a number of coordinations in preparing the preparation of a Circular Letter of the Ministry of Transportation regarding Instructions for the Implementation of Transportation Control during the Christmas and New Year holidays.

The coordination carried out involves Ministries/Agencies, academics, sociologists, transportation observers, and other related parties.

"We will refer to the Circular of the COVID-19 Handling Task Force and the Ministry of Home Affairs, which are related to checking vaccine results, RT-PCR/Antigen tests, using the PeduliLindung application, and other provisions," said the Minister of Transportation.

He revealed that the land transportation sector is the most crucial, because apart from having to manage public transportation arrangements, it also has to make arrangements for private vehicles, both cars, and motorbikes.

A number of other efforts have been prepared by the Ministry of Transportation in the context of controlling transportation during the Christmas and New Year holidays, including conducting a ramp check on the airworthiness of the transportation fleet, checking the health of transportation crews, establishing a Joint Command Post to carry out comprehensive monitoring and evaluation, and conveying appeals to the public not to be careless in implementing health protocols.

In addition, to prevent the entry of new variants of Omicron, the Ministry of Transportation has implemented controls at the entrances for international passenger arrivals, namely at the International Airport and the National Cross-Border Post (PLBN).