Indonesia Shuts Down Entrance Of Foreign Citizens From India Starting April 25

Illustration / SOEKARNO-HATTA AIRPORT (ANTARA)

JAKARTA - The Chairperson of the Committee for Handling COVID-19 and National Economic Recovery (KCP-PEN) as well as Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hartato said the government officially closed entry access for foreigners who had been in India.

This was done to prevent a spike in COVID-19 cases in Indonesia, as a result of the surge in coronavirus cases that are currently happening in India.

"The government has decided to stop granting visas to foreigners who have lived and or visited Indian territory within 14 days," Airlangga said in a virtual press conference, Friday, April 23.

Airlangga said the provisions would be followed by a circular from the Director General of Immigration at the Ministry of Law and Human Rights and related institutions. Policy applies from Sunday, April 25th. This regulation is temporary and will continue to be reviewed.

Meanwhile, Indonesian citizens who are returning to their country and have stayed or visited India within 14 days are still allowed to enter Indonesia. However, the protocol was tightened.

"The points of arrival that were opened were the airports of Soetta, Juanda, Kualanamu, Sam Ratulangi airports and then the seaports of Batam, Tanjungpinang and Dumai. While the land boundaries were Entikong, Nunukan, Malino, this was related to PMI's return from Malaysia," said Airlangga.

Furthermore, the Indonesian citizen is required to quarantine for 14 days at a special hotel. Then, they have to undergo a PCR swab test 2 times, max 2x24 hours before departure.

"The first day and the thirteenth day of arrival will be tested again. This is done for all modes of land, sea and air transportation," he said.

Over the past two months, COVID-19 cases in India have seen a very sharp spike. The graph shows, initially India has managed to keep its positive cases from continuing to decline and remain at a low stable rate.

However, from mid-February until today, the number of positive cases in India has jumped sharply. The cases in India from previously only around 9,000 new cases to more than 300,000 new cases per day. This means that the increase is more than 30 times.

In total, there have been around 15 million cases of coronavirus in India to date. Some experts say the sharp spike in COVID-19 cases in India is due to the transmission of a new variant of COVID-19 which is more rapidly transmitted.