All international travelers, without exception, are mandated to undergo a quarantine period at government-furnished facilities, Vice Minister of Health Dante Saksono Harbuwono stated at an event here, Tuesday.
“Even now, Minister of Health Budi Gunadi Sadikin, who had just returned from China, is currently on a health quarantine for 10 days. There is no exception,” he pointed out.
Harbuwono made the statement in response to a question on the news that House of Representatives (DPR) member Mulan Jameela and her family did not undergo quarantine after she returned from abroad.
He pressed for punishing anyone found violating the quarantine regulation in accordance with Task Force Circular Letter No. 23 of 2021.
“Of course, we will return them back to the quarantine place,” the vice minister affirmed.
According to Harbuwono, the quarantine regulation for international travelers was imposed due to the emergence of the new Omicron variant that experts believe can spread more quickly than the older variants.
“Hence, we extended the quarantine period to 10 days,” he explained.
There will be no exception for citizens, both Indonesians and foreigners, who have just travelled from abroad, he emphasized. They have to undergo quarantine for 10 days.
Everyone necessitated to undergo quarantine should do so at the determined quarantine space instead of their homes, he emphasized.
Meanwhile, to this day, Indonesia has conducted over 10 thousand Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) that reported no Omicron variant detected within the nation.
Earlier, the COVID-19 Task Force had stated that quarantine is a protective instrument to keep the nation away from the pandemic.
Source: Antara News