Yogyakarta Tourism Opens for Chinese New Year with Omicron Anticipation Measures

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Yogyakarta has numerous tourist agendas during the 2022 Chinese New Year holidays. Tourists are also still visiting various corners of Yogyakarta, even though cases of Covid-19 transmission have increased again in recent days.

The special region government has no plan yet to close off various tourist destinations, even though supervision is heightened, with all health services and facilities standing by.

The province's Covid-19 Task Force chairman, Heroe Poerwadi, said that according to the Health Ministry's predictions, the wave of Covid-19's variant Omicron will reach Indonesia from mid-February to April.

"Omicron's distribution is faster than the Delta variant, but there is no need to panic and be afraid," said Heroe Poerwadi on the sidelines of the Jogja Smart Service (JSS service) socialization event on Sunday, January 30.

Heroe, the Deputy Mayor of Yogyakarta, said that although the Omicron is not as vicious as the Delta variant, it does not mean that tourism activities take place without control.

Tourists arriving bus still have to pass checks at the Giwangan Terminal. Enter tourist spots and shopping centers requires scanning the PeduliLindung app QR code. Health protocols and mandates are also implemented everywhere to prevent transmission.

So far, the Omicron variant of Covid-19 had not been detected in Yogyakarta. However, there has been a spike in new cases over the last week. From January 24 to 30, 274 new cases were recorded, more than five times of the previous week's 50 cases.

The Yogyakarta Covid-19 Task Force spokesperson, Berty Murtiningsih, said the increase in active Covid-19 cases over the past week was not accompanied by an increase in hospital beds' occupancy ratio.

Read: Yogyakarta Govt Asks Regions to Re-evaluate Face-to-Face Learning

PRIBADI WICAKSONO (CONTRIBUTOR)