Indonesia Changes Quarantine Rules to Five Days for International Travelers

Jakarta, MINA – The Indonesian government has again changed the quarantine rules for international travelers arriving in Indonesia from seven days to five days.

Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan who is also the Coordinator of the Java-Bali PPKM explained that Indonesian citizens and foreigners who enter Indonesia must have received a complete dose of vaccine.

“The government has changed the seven-day quarantine rule to five days, with a note that Indonesian citizens and foreigners entering Indonesia are required to have complete vaccines,” Luhut said at a press conference after a limited meeting with the President on Monday, as quoted from Republika Online.

For Indonesian citizens who have just carried out the first dose of vaccination, they must continue to undergo quarantine for seven days. Luhut said this policy was implemented considering that most of the Covid-19 variants that infect foreign travelers (PPLN) are omicrons.

“And various studies have shown that the incubation of this variant is around three days,” said Luhut.

He said that the step to reduce the quarantine period was carried out by considering the reallocation of the available resources. Luhut explained that the guesthouse which was previously used as a quarantine for PPLN will be prepared for centralized isolation.

This is in line with the predicted need for centralized isolation for confirmed cases of positive OTG and mild symptoms.

He also conveyed that the government’s efforts to tighten the entry gate for state arrivals succeeded in stopping the entry of Omicron into Indonesia. Even so, he continued, a change in strategy must still be carried out considering the current high number of cases due to local transmission. (T/RE1)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)