The National Police Chief Ensures That The Bubble Travel Scheme Runs According To The SOP

JAKARTA - National Police Chief General Listyo Sigit Prabowo visited the Bandar Bintan Telani Ferry Terminal, Riau Islands, in order to check the implementation of the scheme to open tourism gates between countries during the COVID-19 pandemic or the travel bubble.

During the visit, the National Police Chief emphasized that the application of the travel bubble should be carried out in accordance with the applicable standard operating procedures (SOP) and strict health protocol discipline.

"This is important because we have to be sure that all SOPs, then existing applications can actually detect them. Especially when it comes to the emergence of new variants, which inevitably have to be taken care of," said Sigit, quoted by Antara in a written statement from the Police Public Relations Division, Wednesday, February 9.

The National Police Chief requested the implementation of the travel bubble scheme, all existing applications such as PeduliLindung, Bluepass and precision quarantine monitoring applications must be optimally combined.

According to him, the use of these applications helps officers track tourists who have been confirmed positive for COVID-19. So that further isolation can be carried out.

"The isolation place must also be prepared properly, and then the risk of transmission to tourists, the public, or workers can really be reduced," he said.

Sigit said, in general, the travel bubble procedure has been going well. Even so, he still asked all related parties to continue to ensure that it was carried out according to the SOP and prokes.

"There are only a few efforts to improve, especially related to ensuring that the procedure goes well. Then the disinfection sterilization effort in places where there is a potential for crowds to occur, the potential for transmission to occur is carried out with very strict SOPs," continued Sigit.

Sigit also said that the National Police had formed a task force to carry out direct monitoring of the arrival point of foreign travelers (PPLN), the quarantine process and the location of the travel bubble.

The National Police Chief also emphasized that he would take action against anyone who violates the quarantine rules and the discipline of applying the rules at the travel bubble location.

"Of course we will process if someone commits a violation or plays around with things like that," Sigit added.

Sigit also hopes that with the implementation of the travel bubble while still paying attention to health factors, it will increase the rate of economic growth, especially the tourism sector, which has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Hopefully this travel bubble can encourage tourism potential in the Batam and Bintan and Bali areas. In particular, to be able to increase tourism, which has been affected by the Delta and Omicron variants," concluded Sigit.

The Indonesian government implemented a travel bubble policy between Lagoi Bintan and Nongsa Batam and Singapore on January 24, 2022.

The scheme was also implemented in the G20 Presidency which took place in Indonesia. As well as the Motor GP agenda at the Mandalika Circuit, Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara.

A travel bubble is an agreement between two or more countries to control and break the spread of COVID-19 by placing certain restrictions on cross-country travel by creating a bubble or travel corridor.