Jakarta (ANTARA) - A total of 70,367 Indonesian migrant workers returned to Indonesia in the wake of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, Chairman of the Task Force for the Acceleration of COVID-19 Response Doni Monardo stated.

In the course of the subsequent few days, 12,758 Indonesian crew members will also return home, and 17 cruise ships will dock at the Tanjung Priok Seaport in North Jakarta and Benoa Port in Bali.

President Joko Widodo had ordered the Task Force and relevant ministries and institutions to prepare certain points of debarkation to enable health observations to be conducted in advance. The migrant workers might also be placed in isolation over the virus.

To this end, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Health, National Police, Indonesian Defense Forces (TNI), and Task Force will forge coordination, Monardo stated during a virtual conference after a limited meeting chaired by the president here on Monday.

The task force team has continued to examine the potential for transmission from several newly identified clusters. Moreover, the task force oversees that the return of migrant workers and ABK does not lead to new cases of COVID-19 in Indonesia, he stated.

"This has the potential to partly be the cause for transmission. The provincial task forces have formed organizations, and we are optimistic that each task force would be able to undertake prevention, detection, and handling efforts," Monardo, concurrently head of the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB), explained.

As of Sunday (May 3), the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Indonesia had reached 11,192, with the addition of 349 new positive cases. Of the 11,192 positive patients, 1,876 were declared cured and 845 patients had died of the virus.

In the meantime, 236,369 residents were declared as people in monitoring (ODP), while 23,130 residents were receiving treatment as patients under surveillance (PDP).

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Translator: Indra Arief P, Fardah
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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