Indians Have Tested Positive For COVID-19, A Sign That Indonesia Is Less Vigilant

Illustration of the COVID-19 screening process (doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - Epidemiologist from the University of Indonesia (UI), Pandu Riono said that the government should retest COVID-19 screening for all foreign travelers, even though they have brought a certificate of Swab Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) results from their home country. This was done to anticipate the transmission of the new mutation of COVID-19 that occurred in a number of countries.

"All travelers, citizens of any country, with any destination, passport, or visa must be treated the same, all must be retested for the possibility of carrying the virus," said Pandu Riono, as quoted by Antara, Saturday, April 24.

Pandu said the retest for international travelers was carried out to prevent the transmission of the new mutated Covid-19 virus, including the B117 corona virus, B.1.617 virus and E484K virus from abroad.

In addition, he said, everyone who comes to Indonesia is required to undergo quarantine for a minimum of five (5) days. On the last day, they are obliged to do a second swab, if the result is negative, the next day they can continue their journey.

"Do not be different in treatment, sometimes if the interests are business or tourists, we always think of foreign exchange, even though we are facing a pandemic due to a mutating virus," he said.

Pandu said that the government and society's vigilance should not decrease, even though the trend of cases in Indonesia is currently experiencing a decline.

He said that the entry of 127 Indian foreigners to Indonesia using charter planes proved that the Government was not aware of the potential for transmission of the virus from abroad. He continued, India is reportedly facing a second wave of Covid-19 cases. The government is reminded that the surge in new variants of Corona cases will not occur in the country.

"We need to continue to be vigilant, recently it was discovered that the Indian citizen had tested positive by a dozen people, while we did not know they had the old or new virus," he said.