Preventing Omicron Variants, Government Increases Indonesia's Entry Ban To 11 Countries

Illustration (Pixabay)

JAKARTA - The government added three countries of origin for travelers who came to Indonesia in an effort to prevent the new variant of COVID-19 B.1.1.529 or Omicron. Previously, eight countries that had been banned from entering Indonesia for 14 days were South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Mozambique, Eswatini and Nigeria.

"Entry ban for foreigners who have a history of travel during the last 14 days to the following countries: South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Mozambique, Eswatini, Malawi, Angola, Zambia and Hong Kong," said Minister of Komarves Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan at the conference. virtual press, Sunday, November 28.

Luhut said the list of countries prohibited from entering Indonesia set by the government could increase or decrease based on periodic evaluations carried out by the Government.

"The Ministry of Health will also increase genomic sequencing measures, especially from positive cases from a history of traveling abroad to detect this omicron variant," said Luhut.

Meanwhile, Indonesian citizens who return to Indonesia and have a travel history from these 11 countries will be quarantined for 14 days.

In addition, Luhut said, the government will also increase the quarantine time for foreigners and Indonesian citizens from abroad outside the countries that are on the list to 7 days from the previous 3 days.

"The quarantine policy will be implemented starting November 29, 2021 at 00:01," said Luhut.

For information, the Minister of Health of South Africa (South Africa) on November 25 announced the discovery of a variant of the new corona virus, B.1.1.529. The virus is suspected to be the cause of the skyrocketing COVID-19 cases in South Africa this month.

This new variant of the coronavirus was first identified in Botswana this month. Currently, the Omicron variant has expanded to a number of countries.

The most worrying part is that the mutation in this new variant enlarges the spike protein. If the Delta variant, which has been considered the most infectious of the other variants, only has two mutations, now the new variant of the corona virus B.1.1.529 has 10 mutations.