The Government Confirms That The Omicron Variant Has Not Been Detected Even Though Travelers From Overseas Are Positive For COVID-19

JAKARTA - Minister of Health (Menkes) Budi Gunadi Sadikin, said that the new variant of COVID-19, Omicron, had not yet been detected in the country, although a number of international travelers by land, sea and air had tested positive.

So, currently the government continues to guard the entrance to Indonesia. In particular, Soekarno-Hatta International Airport has received tens of thousands of international travelers over the past two weeks.

"Especially for Omicron, we are also very careful. The biggest entrance (line, ed) is through Cengkareng. In the last two weeks Soekarno-Hatta has entered 33,000 inbound passangers," Budi said in a press conference broadcast on the Presidential Secretariat's YouTube, Monday, December 13 .

Of that number, there were 93 international travelers who tested positive for COVID-19. "From that amount, we have sequenced genome sequences until now the results are still (variant, red) Delta," said the former Deputy Minister of SOEs.

As for the entrance from the sea route, Budi revealed that Batam Port is the most frequented by international travelers. He said 3,500 people had crossed in the last two weeks and of that number 53 people had tested positive for COVID-19 but no Omicron variant was found.

"The westernmost land came from Entikong. In the last two weeks 2,000 passengers entered. We tested all PCR, 37 were positive and until now all of them are Delta variants," said Budi. As is known, the World Health Organization (WHO) revealed that the Omicron variant has been reported in 57 countries with the number of patients requiring hospitalization is likely to increase as the spread.

In this regard, Indonesia has taken a number of steps to take preventive measures. Among other things, extending the quarantine period for foreign travelers from the previous 7 days to 10 days.

Then, specifically for people who travel from countries with community transmission of the Omicron variant and other countries that are geographically close to each other, they are required to quarantine for 14 days.