Jakarta (ANTARA) – The National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) has said it is exploring the possibility of opening a quarantine facility in Surabaya, East Java, to meet the need for isolation sites for international travelers.

To prevent the spread of Omicron, the government has issued a new quarantine regulation for travelers coming from abroad, BNPB’s primary secretary, Lilik Kurniawan, noted here on Friday.

According to the new regulation, Indonesian citizens arriving from overseas need to quarantine for ten days after taking an RT-PCR test, he said.

Indonesian citizens arriving from 11 countries—South Africa, Botswana, Hong Kong, Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Eswatini, and Lesotho—have to undergo quarantine for 14 days, he added.

Indonesian migrant workers, students pursuing their studies abroad, and government employees returning from overseas’ duty can quarantine free of cost at Wisma Atlet, Jakarta, or isolation facilities provided by the government, he informed.

Citizens outside that category need to undergo quarantine at paid facilities, Kurniawan added.

However, quarantine hotels and facilities available for international travelers are not sufficient, and this situation recently led to a long queue of travelers waiting to enter a quarantine location, he noted.

This happened on Saturday at Soekarno-Hatta Airport, Tangerang, Banten, because the quarantine facilities were not sufficient, he added.

Kurniawan did not provide further details on the plan for opening a quarantine facility in Surabaya.

BNPB’s head is currently visiting Surabaya to review the city’s quarantine service system, he informed.

“This is why BNPB’s head is heading there to see if the system that was built there is proceeding smoothly so there would no longer be any queue of travelers,” he added.

Source: Antara News