Luhut Ensures The Government Continues To Evaluate Policies To Prevent The Omicron Variant From Entering The Country

Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Luhut Pandjaitan/DOK VIA ANTARA

JAKARTA - Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment (Menko Marves) Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan asked the public not to panic in the face of the latest COVID-19 variant, Omicron.

Luhut ensured that policy evaluations will be carried out from time to time to minimize the possibility of the spread of this virus in the country.

"The government has taken the previously announced policy steps and will continue to evaluate policies from time to time to minimize the impact of the entry of this new variant," Luhut said in a written statement, Monday, November 29.

Instead of panicking, continued Luhut, the public was asked to be on guard by tightening the implementation of health protocols. Moreover, the current government has banned travelers from 11 countries, including South Africa and Hong Kong, which have experienced massive spread of the variant.

"We just need to be vigilant and on guard by re-tightening the implementation of this health protocol that has begun to look neglected," he said.

In addition to preventing new variants, this health protocol needs to be tightened to prevent a significant increase in cases like last July. Moreover, it is now approaching Christmas and New Year's Day 2022.

Not only that, Luhut also asked for the implementation of tracing, testing, and treatment (3T) to continue to be improved in the community as well as the COVID-19 vaccination.

"Our vaccination rate is also above 60 percent compared to 2020 when the vaccination program was not yet running," he said.

"People also don't need to panic because the government already has an integrated application, namely PeduliLindungi, which needs to be enforced," concluded Luhut.