Indonesia Rules Out Lockdown amid Omicron Spread

TheIndonesia.id - Indonesia’s top official has ruled out the possibility of Indonesia entering a lockdown amid the threat of a new COVID-19 variant.

As reported by Suara.com on Monday, November 29, Coordinating Minister for Maritime and Investment Affairs Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan said the Indonesian government isn’t considering a lockdown as a response to the latest development of the pandemic. According to him, a lockdown hasn’t emerged as the best solution at the moment, considering the experiences of other countries that have implemented it.

“Based on experiences, lockdown doesn’t solve the problem. The [COVID-19] attack increases instead,” Luhut said.

Instead, he said the government will opt to continue with the community activities restrictions, or locally known as PPKM, as it’s considered to bring more ‘balance’ into social activities in Indonesia compared to a lockdown.

As a response to the spread of new COVID-19 variant B.1.1.529 or Omicron which was first detected in South Africa, the Indonesian government has issued new regulation related to travel restrictions, including banning entry to travelers coming from South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Mozambique, Eswatini, Malawi, Angola, Zambia, and Hong Kong.

Prior to that, to prevent a case surge during the year-end holidays, authorities also announced that all regions in Indonesia will implement Level 3 PPKM. It regulates that places of worship, movie theaters, restaurants, and malls can only receive visitors to up to 50 percent of total capacity, and they are allowed to operate only until 9 p.m. 

Therefore, Coordinating Minister Pandjaitan asked the public not to overly panic in reacting to Omicron.

Meanwhile, professor of clinical microbiology at the Eijkman Institute Amin Soebandrio said there hasn’t been a report that this new variant has entered Indonesia. However, he warned the government to take immediate preventive measures.

“The measures taken by the government have been adequate; we’re preventing the virus from being transmitted from people who have been traveling abroad,” Soebandrio said.

“For those coming, they have to go through a stricter screening process, hence a longer quarantine period. A number of PCR procedures are also amplified.”