Indonesia eyes lifting all quarantine requirements around April

Published Mon, Feb 14, 2022 · 05:50 PM

[JAKARTA] Indonesia is considering lifting all quarantine requirements for travellers around April as Covid-19 hospitalisations and fatality rates remain under control despite a resurgence in cases.

The required quarantine period is reduced to three days from five for incoming travellers who have received a third dose of vaccines starting from next week, Luhut Panjaitan, the Cabinet minister in charge of the pandemic response in Java and Bali, said in his weekly briefing on Monday.

PCR testing requirement will remain in place for those arriving travellers. "We need to find that balance between the need to maintain health and the need to maintain the economy," said the minister.

"Hospitalization and death rates have been so much lower than" those suffered during the Delta outbreak, he said, adding that the Omicron variant of the coronavirus is a lot less deadly than the Delta strain, which had overwhelmed the medical system last year. Indonesia is following a global strategy of trying to live with the virus, even as infections continue to spread, opening its borders more freely to those who are eligible.

Neighbouring Singapore eased testing rules for vaccinated travellers last month. The country recorded over 55,000 cases on Saturday, approaching the daily peak reached during the Delta outbreak in 2021. More than 100 people succumbed to the disease that day, compared with over 2,000 deaths recorded in July last year. Covid hospitalisation rate is maintained at around 30 per cent. The government is also easing capacity restrictions to improve mobility, including increasing office capacity to half or more from 25% per cent, Panjaitan said. It will keep monitoring the situation with the intention to loosen curbs further, he said.

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