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RI unfazed by China’s COVID-19 surge, easing travel curbs
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Back to normal: People throng a shopping mall in Surabaya on Oct. 13, 2022 to watch a rock climbing competition for young people. As the government has loosened COVID-19 restrictions, shopping malls and other public facilities have resumed normal activities. (AFP/Juni Kriswanto)
P
resident Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has said that he is not worried about a possible surge of COVID-19 infections from foreign tourists amid concerns of surging of cases in China, which has decided to relax its strict pandemic measures.
“As long as our serosurvey shows results above 90 percent, which means we already have proper immunity, then whatever comes our way won’t be a problem," said the President when responding to questions on how the government plans to anticipate the rise of COVID-19 infections in China.
President Jokowi made the statement as Beijing planned to reopen its borders after three years of a stringent lockdown, a policy that has elated its pandemic-fatigued citizens. Jubilant Chinese people are flocking to travel sites to search for cross-border destinations, Reuters has reported.
Data from travel platform Ctrip showed that within half an hour of the news, searches for popular cross-border destinations had increased 10-fold. Macau, Hong Kong, Japan, Thailand, South Korea were the most sought-after, Ctrip said.
Data from another platform, Qunar, showed that within 15 minutes of the news, searches for international flights jumped sevenfold, with Thailand, Japan and South Korea at the top of the list.
Bracing for new variants
