Indonesia tightens screening as Covid cases rise

Indonesia tightens screening as Covid cases rise

An auto rickshaw, center, travels along a street in Medan, Indonesia, on Saturday, May 28, 2022. (Photo: Bloomberg)
An auto rickshaw, center, travels along a street in Medan, Indonesia, on Saturday, May 28, 2022. (Photo: Bloomberg)

Indonesia is tightening guidelines around organising large-scale events to minimise the spread of Covid-19 virus as new cases increased to a two-month high.

Participants should be fully vaccinated in order to attend events involving 1,000 people or more, while unvaccinated children are discouraged from joining, Covid-19 Task Force Spokesman Wiku Adisasmito said in a briefing Tuesday. The new directive takes effect immediately, and a regulation detailing all the measures will be issued shortly. 

“The rise in infections is unavoidable as people’s mobility increases, regardless of the variants,” Adisasmito said.

Events involving senior state officials and government ministers should require a negative PCR test, while participants in multilateral events should present negative antigen tests. For non-multilateral events, organisers must screen the body temperature of all participants. Those with symptoms must take antigen tests onsite. Organisers of such large events must provide a proper health screening facility on location. 

Indonesia’s daily Covid-19 tally has topped 1,000 for six straight days, hitting their highest level in two months. According to Adisasmito, the positivity rate rose for four consecutive weeks to 2.23% this week, a marked increase from 0.33% at the end of May.

Do you like the content of this article?
COMMENT