Government Asked To Seriously Face COVID-19 After 59 Countries Refuse Indonesian Citizens To Enter

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JAKARTA - As many as 59 countries have refused the arrival of Indonesian citizens after the spike in cases of the spread of COVID-19 in the country. DPR Commission IX member Saleh Partaonan Daulay said the ban was a reflection of concerns from other countries over the COVID-19 case in Indonesia.

"The ban is evidence of the concerns of these countries regarding the spread of COVID-19 in Indonesia. This will certainly have implications for various sectors including the economy," said Saleh in a written statement, Wednesday, September 9.

According to him, this refusal could cause problems because Indonesian citizens who wanted to visit the country might actually want to carry out economic activities.

Especially in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic like today, only people with special interests are traveling, let alone abroad.

"On the other hand, if the country prohibits Indonesian citizens from entering, surely its citizens will also be prohibited from visiting Indonesia. The implication is that the level of visits to Indonesia will decrease and our tourism will suffer a tremendous impact. Not to mention if the visit is a business visit," he said.

Saleh asked the government to work hard to increase international confidence that the handling of COVID-19 in Indonesia was successful. Given that currently there are still many countries that think that the Indonesian government has not been able to fight this pandemic.

This, Saleh continued, could be done by following the standards set by WHO and other international health institutions. One of them is by increasing the number of tracking and testing in the community. In addition, the government must also find ways to be able to massively reduce the positive number of COVID-19.

Another way to prove that Indonesia is capable of handling the spread of COVID-19 is by enforcing discipline in implementing health protocols in the community.

"It must be clear that there is an application of physical distancing and social distancing. Likewise the implementation of washing hands, wearing masks, and implementing a healthy lifestyle and in the end, it is hoped that our positive citizens will decrease and more will recover," he said.

"We cannot refuse if other countries prohibit us from entering their country. We also cannot do much if they prohibit their citizens from visiting Indonesia. Therefore, the most we can do is fight against Covid-19 and win the war," added the Party politician. This National Mandate (PAN).

It is known, in addition to 59 countries in the world that prohibit Indonesian citizens from entering their territory, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) or the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has even issued the highest level of warnings to its citizens not to enter Indonesia due to COVID-19 reasons.

Meanwhile, the government, through the Spokesperson for the COVID-19 Handling Task Force, Wiku Adisasmito, assessed that this ban was a natural thing to prevent imported cases.

"That in this world, COVID-19 is still a pandemic, so there is no country that is free from COVID. All countries must try to protect their citizens or society and Indonesia is no exception," Wiku said in an online press conference broadcast on the YouTube account of the Presidential Secretariat, Tuesday, September 8.

Seeing this fact, he appealed to the public not to travel between countries. This is because this has the potential to cause imported cases.

"As long as we can maintain or limit population mobility between countries, as well as within the vast country of Indonesia, that is the way we can control cases well," said Wiku.

"So, we ask for understanding to all Indonesian citizens so that they can really protect their respective areas, the mobility of the population is limited to only essential trips, and actually carry out health protocols as we are heralding in order that there are no additional new cases. , "he concluded.