Omicron Enters Indonesia, Vice President Ma'ruf Asks For Tightening Sea, Air, Land Entrances

Vice President Ma'ruf Amin attends the Congress of the Indonesian Engineers Association in Bali (ANTARA/Satwapres)

JAKARTA - Vice President Ma'ruf Amin emphasized that there must be tightening of entrances at all borders to Indonesian territory to prevent the spread of cases of the new variant of SARS-CoV-2 type B.1.1.529 or Omicron.

"First, of course, tighten the entry of (Omicron) at various entrances, be it air, sea, or land. Don't let it escape", said the Vice President in a statement received in Jakarta, Antara, Friday, December 17.

Ma'ruf also asked the entire community to strengthen the application of health protocols and activate the PeduliLindung application to monitor the mobility of the crowd.

"Secondly, because this has started to come in, we are tightening health protocols, especially (wearing) masks; then also Care to Protect", he added.

The vice president also asked all levels of local government (Pemda) to increase vigilance by tracking and testing the community. In addition, the implementation of COVID-19 vaccination for local communities must also be accelerated so that the Omicron variant can be anticipated early on.

"And also matters relating to testing and tracing, then this vaccination will be accelerated. In fact, in January (2022) this booster was entered, this is important", he said.

Meanwhile, regarding the implementation of restrictions on community activities (PPKM) during the 2021 Christmas and New Year 2022 holidays, the vice president said the government would impose PPKM levels according to the conditions of each region.

"This level can go up (or) go down. Therefore, maybe until January, nothing will be lowered. Even though it's not at level three, these tightenings can be made", said the vice president.

Previously, President Jokowi invited all parties to work together as hard as possible to minimize the spread of the Omicron variant in Indonesia.

"What we have to do is together, try our best, so that the Omicron variant does not spread in the country. Do not allow the local transmission to occur", said the President.