JAKARTA, THE NUSANTARA POST- The government through the Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investments (Menko Marves) Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan said that he had changed the quarantine time for foreign arrivals for foreign travelers (PPLN) from the previous seven days to five days, provided that the vaccination dose was complete.
“This strategy change was made considering the higher number of cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 originating from local transmission than imported cases,” said Luhut when delivering a press statement as quoted from the Setkab page (1/2/2022).
The government said to change the seven-day quarantine rule to five days with a note that Indonesian citizens and foreigners entering Indonesia are required to have complete vaccines. For Indonesian citizens who have just carried out the first dose of vaccination, they still have to undergo a seven-day quarantine,” said Luhut.
Luhut revealed, this policy was taken considering that most of the confirmation cases from PPLN were Omicron variants. In addition, Luhut added, various studies show that the incubation period of this Omicron variant is in the range of three days.
“This step to reduce quarantine days also takes into account the need to reallocate the resources we have. The guesthouse which was previously used for PPLN quarantine will be prepared for centralized isolation (isoter) in line with the predicted increase in isoter demand for positive confirmed cases of OTG and mild symptoms,” said the Coordinating Minister.
Luhut said that starting February 4, the government will also reopen international entrances in Bali. This is done to boost the Balinese economy, which is already quite affected by this pandemic.
“However, we will continue to open gradually, in stages, and continue,” he said.
He said that later the opening of the entrance to Bali would only be for non-PMI PPLNs. In addition to quarantine regulations, we will continue to follow the applicable circulars.
Luhut added that the government provided two additional options for the quarantine of PPLN, namely bubble quarantine at hotels or live on board ships.
“Currently Bali also provides two additional options for PPLN quarantine, namely bubble quarantine starting at five hotels with a total of 447 rooms and six live on board ships that have been certified CHSE by the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy,” he concluded (Wan)
