The policy is intended to boost foreign tourism and help tourism-dependent areas recover economically.
he government is set to stop requiring quarantine for fully vaccinated international visitors entering the country on Tuesday, as it seeks to boost foreign tourist arrivals.
Tourism and Creative Economy Minister Sandiaga Salahuddin Uno announced the decision on Monday, expressing hope that the new policy would help revive the country’s tourism industry and create new economic opportunities for locals.
“The quarantine-free international entry policy will be expanded throughout Indonesia, requiring only entry PCR tests. The national COVID-19 task force will issue a circular letter [on the policy] tomorrow,” he said during a weekly press briefing on Monday.
Read also: Govt ends quarantine for foreign visitors to Bali
The decision was made after the government completed a two-week trial of quarantine-free international travel to Bali, Batam and Bintan. The results of the trial showed a “very low” positivity rate and a declining COVID-19 reproduction number, according to Sandiaga.
The country has gradually relaxed its COVID-19 restrictions, most recently by allowing domestic travelers to board flights without presenting negative test results, as daily coronavirus cases have dropped more than 90 percent from a mid-February peak.
“We will carry out the normalization process in the next few months. If everything goes smoothly from Ramadan to Eid, we will continue this process,” Sandiaga said. “Preparations for a post-pandemic transition [and into] the endemic state are expected to be completed by the third quarter of this year in June.”
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