TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Indonesian government claims that its ‘health alert card’ policy for international visitors is largely dependable to handle the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) in the country. However, the fact shows that up until March 11 there have been 34 positive coronavirus cases with 19 of them being imported cases.
The government is yet to bring additional flight restrictions from and to international destinations apart from the already established ones that comprise China, Iran, Italy, and South Korea.
“There are no new additions to the flight restrictions,” said Achmad Yurianto, national spokesman for Indonesia’s coronavirus mitigation at the presidential office on Wednesday.
In terms of preventing further infections from international visitors, the government’s health alert card has collected more than 2,000 tourists data who arrived from countries that have positive cases of coronavirus infections.
As for domestic transmissions, the government is prioritizing the ‘contact tracing’ method in response to confirmed positive coronavirus cases.
“This is what we are focusing on because positive COVID-19 cases also come from countries that also have coronavirus transmissions, such as from Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines. [The aforementioned countries] are also monitoring us, so we are equally monitoring each other and strengthening state borders,” said Achmad Yurianto.
He also stated that thermal scanners placed strategically in airports are unable to track down coronavirus suspects if the infected people enter the gates have yet to show symptoms of fever. “But with the health alert card, every one of them can be detected.”
DEWI NURITA
