Health Ministry: COVID-19-free Certification Is Pointless
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6 March 2020 15:25 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Secretary of the Health Ministry’s Prevention and Control Diseases Directorate General, Achmad Yurianto, asserted that health certificates used to prove that people did not contract the COVID-19 was ineffective to prevent the virus from spreading further in the country.
Yurianto’s statement contrasted Vice President Ma'ruf Amin’s remarks that the government planned to issue a medical certification as a precautionary measure to keep the virus from infecting people.
“It’s unnecessary, there is no benefit of the health certificate. It’s pointless,” said Yurianto, who is also the national spokesman for the virus outbreak mitigation at the Presidential Office, Jakarta, Friday, March 6.
He explained that the virus was not an individual matter, but rather about controlling the virus spread in the community.
Therefore, Yurianto said the government institutions and other firms should not ask their workers who had traveled abroad to obtain a coronavirus-free certification. The government will track the travel history of people based on existing medical protocols.
The government will also beef up health monitoring. “Because this disease [from COVID-19] has no severe symptoms, but just influenza,” said Yurianto.
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