TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, the Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment, said President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo requested the price ceiling of the PCR test be lowered.

“The President orders the price ceiling of PCR test to be lowered to Rp300,000,” said Luhut at a press conference on Monday, October 25.

Additionally, the President also demanded the validity period of the test results be extended to 3x24 hours. Luhut said the government received a lot of input and criticism regarding the policy on mandatory PCR tests as one of the air travel requirements during the lingering COVID-19 pandemic.

“It should be understood that the PCR test policy is applied because we see a higher risk of virus transmission as the public mobility is increasing rapidly in recent weeks,” he underlined.

The policy determination, he added, was based on the experiences of other countries, such as European countries, which are experiencing a surge in COVID-19 cases following the relaxation of community activities, even though their vaccination rates are higher than Indonesia.

Thus, Luhut appealed to the public to understand and not be emotional over the government's decision on the PCR test.

The government issued a new policy on domestic air travel. People traveling to Java and Bali regions or areas under PPKM levels 3 and 4 are required to present a negative result of an RT-PCR test. Previously, the air travel requirement was the negative result of the rapid antigen test.

The policy sparked public criticism. Some people even signed a petition via change.org asking the government to revoke the mandatory PCR test as an air travel requirement.

Read: Professor Defends PCR Test Requirement for Air Travel

FRISKI RIANA