Indonesia to Tighten Borders in Batam Following Fake PCR Test Finding
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30 December 2021 23:36 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Indonesian Covid-19 Task Force is tightening the surveillance at the country's entry gates in Batam after the finding of a fake PCR test carried by a migrant worker from Malaysia.
"Entry test for everyone from Malaysia and Singapore is mandatory," said Deputy of National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) General Maj. Fajar Setyawan in a coordination meeting with Riau Islands mayor Anshar Ahmad on Thursday, December 30.
Batam is one of entry points reopened by the Indonesian government during the pandemic. In daily average, there are 250 visitors from Singapore and Malaysia.
Based on the analysis, Batam needs 2,750 quarantine beds in total, while there are only 38 vacant beds available at present.
Currently, the quarantine beds prioritized for migrant workers and civil servants, as well as students, are 95 percent occupated. As for the hotels it made up 32 percent of its total vacancy.
Covid-19 Task Force spokesman Wiku Adisasmito added that it recorded 353 confirmed positive cases in December. "This number increased twice fold, more than 168 compared to November. Most cases showed positive results on the second PCR test. This shows that the 10 days quarantine are able to screen effectively to prevent further transmission," he said.
From the Covid-19 cases in Batam, the genome whole sequencing has yet to find an Omicron variant. According to Wiku, the current priorities are to tighten the border securities considering many migrant workers from Malaysia are found to be positive for Covid-19.
Another priority is to increase the number of vacant beds in an anticipation of arrivals during Christmas and new year's holidays.
Read: Task Force Anticipates Omicron Variant from Migrant Workers in Batam
M ROSSENO AJI | Graven (Intern)
