Especially because, based on the Singapore Tourism Board record, Indonesia is the most important tourism market for SingaporeJakarta (ANTARA) - Deputy Speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) Lestari Moerdijat has asked the government to strengthen supervision at entry points to the country as an anticipatory measure against COVID-19 spread.
"High (level of) alertness must be implemented to prevent the spread of the XBB subvariant of COVID-19 from Singapore to the country," she said in a written statement here on Monday.
Moerdijat made the request in response to the latest COVID-19 wave in Singapore, which has been caused by the XBB subvariant of Omicron and is predicted to peak in mid-November 2022.
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Singapore’s Health Ministry has predicted that the number of daily confirmed cases could touch 20 thousand to 25 thousand per day.
According to Moerdijat, efforts to curb COVID-19 spread must be increased as a response to the surge in transmission in Singapore.
“Especially because, based on the Singapore Tourism Board record, Indonesia is the most important tourism market for Singapore," she added.
Indonesian tourists make up the largest chunk of foreign tourists visiting Singapore, she noted. Of the 1.5 million international tourists arriving in Singapore in the January–June 2022 period, Indonesians accounted for as many as 282 thousand, or 18.8 percent of the tourists.
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For this reason, stakeholders in Indonesia must implement a preventive mechanism by strengthening the health protocols against the entry of people from Singapore, she added.
"I hope the efforts of the central and regional governments to make Indonesia move toward the endemic status can be realized with consistency in implementing a measured prevention mechanism against COVID-19 spread," she said.
Support from the community in complying with all the policies implemented by the government is needed to bring the transmission of COVID-19 in Indonesia under greater control, she added.
The first case of COVID-19 in Indonesia was confirmed in March 2020. According to data from the COVID-19 Handling Task Force, as of October 17, 2022, the nation has recorded 6,458,101 COVID-19 cases, 6,282,951 recoveries, and 158,327 deaths.
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Translator: Imam Budilaksono, Raka Adji
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
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