COVID Task Force Asks People to Get Tested After Traveling

TheIndonesia.id - Indonesia’s COVID-19 Task Force has recommended the public to get tested for the disease after a long-distance travel, so the spread of the virus can be regularly contained in the country.

The Task Force’s spokesperson Wiku Adisasmito has recently called for people who traveled – as well as those who have symptoms – to immediately get COVID-19 tests.

“We’re expecting your awareness to get tested, especially those with long-distance travel history, those who visited crowded places, and people who don’t feel well and have symptoms,” Adisasmito said on Wednesday, May 18, as reported by Antara.

The majority of Indonesians have returned after spending Idul Fitri holidays in their hometowns in a tradition called mudik. The Ministry of Transportation previously predicted that more than 80 million Indonesians would take part in the mass exodus that would see them travel from one region to another.

This phenomenon is expected to trigger a new COVID-19 case surge, and the Ministry of Health said a significant surge would be detectable by late May.

Adisasmito also reminded the public to remain rigorous in implementing the necessary health protocols as they’re crucial to help preventing further spread of the coronavirus.

Similarly, he said the government has ordered provinces with increasing cases to carry out the testing, tracing, and treatment (3T), and currently, only 16 provinces reported an increase in active cases – and several of them are origin and destination provinces for mudik, including Jakarta, Banten, and East Java.