TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Ministry of Health declared that four people from Tanjungpinang, who had just returned from Singapore via Batam, are still undergoing quarantine at their home for the next five days related to the anticipation of the coronavirus. This quarantine was carried out to determine their health conditions.

"We did a health quarantine at their house for observation," said Director-General of Disease Prevention and Control (P2P) of the Ministry of Health Anung Sugihantono, Monday, February 10, 2020.

Although they are being quarantined, Anung asked the public to understand that it does not mean that they are suspects of Coronavirus sufferers. "So they are healthy but had been verified to have contacted with a suspect of Coronavirus. So we do measurements every day. These are a series of global policy standards," he said.

Moreover, the Tanjungpinang Health office has also examined the four Indonesian citizens. The result, their body temperatures are in the range of 35 to 37 degrees Celcius or not exceeding the limits of the health protocol. Based on the examination, the DHO stated they were healthy.

However, said Anung, because of the health authorities in Singapore had given notification that they had made contact with the suspect of Coronavirus, the Ministry of Health decided to quarantine them at home to undergo the health protocol.

Anung explained that the contact notification from Singapore does not necessarily mean that the four Indonesian citizens had been in contact with individuals who suspected of being infected by the Coronavirus. But it could be that all four Indonesian citizens have only ever been in the same room with the suspect of Coronavirus.

He also could not confirm the definition of "contact" given by Singapore because of the authorities also did not provide further explanation.

The four Indonesian citizens are a family group totalling six people. They returned from Singapore on January 30 through Batam. However, the authorities in Singapore only gave notification to four Indonesian citizens out of a total of six people. Previously they had been suspected coronavirus, but the Ministry of Health denied this.