"The government will continue to tighten testing and tracing efforts at all entry points since the (COVID-19) positivity rate at sea and land travel entry points is tenfold higher than at air travel entry points," he said in a press statement on the development of the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia, accessed from here on Thursday.
During the period from December 12 to18, 2021, the positivity rate at air entry points was 0.48 percent, sea entry points 5.401 percent, and land entry points 1.3 percent, he informed.
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The tightening of supervision at all entry points is a follow-up to the detection of Omicron cases in the country, he said.
Based on whole-genome sequencing (WGS) carried out this week, three new cases of Omicron have been confirmed in Indonesia: an Indonesian citizen returning from Malaysia and two Indonesian citizens arriving from Congo, he added.
"Therefore, as of today, there are eight positive cases of Omicron (in Indonesia)," he noted.
To this end, he affirmed that the government would tighten supervision at all air, sea, and land entry points.
The first case of COVID-19 was confirmed in Indonesia in March 2020. According to data provided by the COVID-19 Handling Task Force, as of December 23, 2021, at least 4,261,208 people have tested positive for COVID-19 in the country, while 4,112,524 people have recovered, and 144,042 people have succumbed to the deadly virus.
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Translator: Andi Firdaus, Raka Adji
Editor: Suharto
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