Many Criticisms Of Mandatory PCR Requirements For Airplane Passengers, Jokowi Orders PCR Prices To Drop To IDR 300 Thousand

Illustration-PCR Test (Photo: DOK ANTARA)

JAKARTA - Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan admitted that the government received a lot of criticism over the mandatory requirements for PCR tests for airplane passengers and antigen swabs no longer valid.

Therefore, President Joko Widodo ordered his staff to lower the price of the PCR test to Rp. 300 thousand. Currently, the highest tariff for PCR costs in Java-Bali is Rp. 495 thousand and Rp. 550 thousand outside Java-Bali.

Not only that, continued Luhut, Jokowi also ordered the validity period of the negative PCR test results as a travel requirement to be relaxed to 3x24 hours.

"The president's directive is that the PCR price can be lowered to Rp. 300,000 and is valid for 3 x 24 hours for plane trips," Luhut said in his statement, Monday, October 25.

Responding to criticism of the mandatory PCR requirements for air transportation travel agents, Luhut asked the public to understand that this PCR policy was implemented to minimize the spread of COVID-19.

He said, the mandatory PCR test policy, which is currently only being implemented for domestic flight passengers, aims to balance the easing given to the community in the tourism sector, along with the decline in PPKM levels in various regions.

"We see the risk of spreading is increasing due to population mobility which has increased rapidly in recent weeks," explained Luhut.

Luhut compared, during the Christmas and New Year holiday period last year, although flights to Bali required PCR, mobility continued to increase and in the end led to an increase in cases, even without the delta variant.

"We can say that mobility in Bali is currently the same as last year's Nataru, and will continue to increase until the end of this year, thereby increasing the risk of an increase in cases," said Luhut.

The Directorate General of Air Transportation of the Ministry of Transportation has issued the latest flight regulations through Circular Letter Number 88 of 2021 concerning Guidelines for the Implementation of Domestic Travel by Air Transportation during the COVID-19 Pandemic Period.

In the latest SE, flights from or to airports on Java and Bali islands, between cities on Java and Bali islands, as well as areas with PPKM level 4 and PPKM level 3 categories, must show a vaccine card (at least the first dose of vaccination) and a negative certificate RT-PCR maximum 2x24 hours before departure.

Meanwhile, for flights from and to airports outside Java and Bali with PPKM level 1 and PPKM level 2 categories, it is mandatory to show a certificate of negative RT-PCR results (maximum 2x24 hours sample) or negative RT-antigen results (maximum sample 1x24 hours ), before departure.