Omicron; Govt Mulls to Increase Quarantine Period to 14 Days
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21 December 2021 00:38 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Pandjaitan, said that the government is reviewing possibilities to increase the quarantine period from 10 days to 14 days for international arrivals. The review was made following the recent discoveries of the infection of new coronavirus variant, B.1.1.529, or known as Omicron, in Indonesia.
"The government is seriously considering to increase the quarantine period to 14 days if cases of Omicron variant spread," Luhut said at a press conference on Monday, December 20, 2021.
Luhut also encouraged to the public not to travel abroad. "We keep encouraging the public not to travel abroad if it is not urgent because of the severity of Omicron" Luhut said.
The government is highly concerned that people from abroad will have the potential to bring the new virus variant to Indonesia
To date, the government detected three confirmed cases of the Omicron variant. The first patient is a janitor working at the Wisma Atlet quarantine center in Kemayoran, who was exposed to the virus from a Nigerian citizen quarantined in the facility.
The other two cases are travelers from South America and the UK. Both are also being quarantined in Wisma Atlet.
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