The Government Tightens Quarantine, Minister Of Health: We Must Protect 270 Million Indonesian People
JAKARTA - The government will tighten quarantine for travelers from abroad to prevent the spread of COVID-19 transmission, the Omicron variant.
It is known, currently there are 46 cases of Omicron in Indonesia. Of these, 98 percent of the total cases occurred due to Indonesian citizens (WNI) from abroad.
Minister of Health, Budi Gunadi Sadikin, explained that the quarantine tightening was to protect hundreds of millions of Indonesians from Omicron transmission.
"If you say, 'Oh, it's difficult', it is indeed difficult, but only for the tens of thousands of our relatively better-off people who did leave the country yesterday. But we have to protect our 270 million people, who are now in good condition," Budi said at the press conference broadcast via the Presidential Secretariat's YouTube, Monday, December 27.
In addition to tightening quarantine, the government will also use a Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test kit with new technology. This PCR test kit is claimed to be able to see Omicron material.
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"We have distributed it at all entrances from abroad so that we can identify Omicron faster using the PCR test which only takes 4 to 6 hours compared to the genome sequencing test which takes between 3 to 5 days," he said.
"Furthermore, said Budi, the government will also deploy genome-sequencing machines to all islands in Indonesia. According to him, 15 new genome sequencing machines will arrive in the country in early 2022.
"We will deploy them to all the islands of Indonesia, Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Maluku, Papua, so that this genome sequencing test becomes faster and the network becomes stronger, not only in Java," said Budi.