The most frequent cases are ones from international travelers, so additional international traveler cases will certainly be different from locally transmitted ones
Jakarta (ANTARA) - The government will separate data on local COVID-19 cases and imported cases, or infections detected in international travelers, Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto informed during an online press conference on Monday.

"There will be a momentary separation. The most frequent cases are ones from international travelers, so additional international traveler cases will certainly be different from locally transmitted ones," he explained.

International travelers will be given a different evaluation through special treatment at entry points, he said.

The entry points include airports (Soekarno Hatta, Juanda, Sam Ratulangi), harbors (Batam, Tanjung Pinang, Nunukan), and cross-border posts (Aruk, Entikong, and Motaain), the minister added.

For instance, records of travelers detected with COVID-19 at Soekarno Hatta Airport and quarantined at the Emergency Hospital (RSDC) Wisma Atlet Kemayoran will not be combined with the records of local cases detected in Jakarta, Hartarto said.

"It will be the same in Riau Islands. Cases from Batam Harbour will not be combined with cases from Riau Islands," he added.

According to the minister, Indonesia's effective case reproduction figure is still below one percent, specifically around 0.99 percent, with active cases outside Java-Bali accounting for 36.87 percent or 2,252 cases of the 6,108 national cases.

Meanwhile, vaccine coverage in several provinces outside Java-Bali has remained below 60 percent, he noted.

"The government has prepared booster vaccines. Several have received the EUA (emergency-use authorization) from BPOM, namely PT Bio Farma's CoronaVac, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Moderna, and Zifivax," Hartarto informed.

At the press conference on Monday, Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan asked people to avoid international travel for the next several weeks.

This has to be done in order to stem the spread of the Omicron variant, which is primarily being detected in international travelers returning to Indonesia, he said.

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Translator: Kuntum Khaira R, Fadhli Ruhman
Editor: Sri Haryati
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