TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
RI screens tourists as SARS-like virus outbreak reaches Thailand
Hazard warning: Members of staff of the Wuhan Hygiene Emergency Response Team conduct searches of the closed Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in the city of Wuhan, in Hubei province, China, on Saturday
Change Size
H
azard warning: Members of staff of the Wuhan Hygiene Emergency Response Team conduct searches of the closed Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in the city of Wuhan, in Hubei province, China, on Saturday. The Wuhan health authorities said that a man who died from a respiratory illness had purchased goods at the market. (AFP/Noel Celis)
The government is ramping up efforts to prevent a mysterious Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)-like virus first identified in China from entering Indonesia as neighboring Thailand marked the first outbreak recorded outside the originating country's borders.
Thailand officials confirmed that a Chinese traveler in the country had been diagnosed with mild pneumonia on Jan. 8, which was later found to have been caused by the same novel coronavirus first identified in a pneumonia patient in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019, AFP reported.
The new coronavirus, which belongs to a large family of viruses that cause illness ranging from the common cold to the deadly SARS disease, has infected 41 people and killed one in China, AFP reported, adding that Wuhan's authorities had identified a seafood market in the city as the center of the outbreak before closing it on Jan. 1. The virus has not been previously identified in humans and so far there has been no indication that the virus transmits from human to human.
The director general of disease control and prevention at the Indonesian Health Ministry, Anung Sugihantono, said the ministry had anticipated the outbreak, including by heightening prevention, detection and responsive efforts at entrance points across the country.
Ports and airports in the country have put up thermal scanners to monitor people entering the country following the ministry's recommendation issued on Jan. 5, as fever is one of the common symptoms of the coronavirus.
No travel warning for China was necessary for now, said Anung, who is currently in Batam, Riau Islands, a main entrance point into Indonesia for Chinese tourists, to brief port health office workers on how to detect the virus.
"We are following the World Health Organization, which has not even issued a travel advisory," Anung told The Jakarta Post via text message on Tuesday.
The WHO has not issued any recommendations on travel and trade restrictions with China following the outbreak but has suggested precautions as the virus' transmission potential and modes of transmission remain unclear.
In November last year, 147,500 Chinese tourists came into the country, representing 11.4 percent of all foreign tourists, Statistics Indonesia data show, with the Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry targeting about 200,000 Chinese visitors for the coming Chinese New Year, which falls on Jan. 25 this year.
"Chinese New Year is coming up so we will heighten monitoring because there is usually a surge of Chinese vistors entering the region," acting communication and legal manager of Kualanamu Airport in Medan, North Sumatra, Paulina HA Simbolon, told the Post.
Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin II Airport in Palembang, South Sumatra, and international ferry ports in Batam, Bintan and Karimun, Riau Islands, have also taken similar measures, focusing more on visitors coming from Singapore. Batam Health Agency head Didi Kusumayadi said the agency was in close contact with Singaporean health officials as the country served direct flights to China, a country that sent 260,274 tourists to Riau Islands last year.
Health Minister Terawan Agus Putranto issued a statement on Jan. 10, suggesting that Indonesians having traveled to China avoid going to seafood or other living animals markets and see a doctor if they came across people suffering from fever, cough or breathing difficulties during their stay there, or if they experienced similar symptoms upon their return.
He said that as China's investigation into the virus had yet to yield any certain outcome, Indonesians had better maintain a healthy lifestyle and personal hygiene, such as frequent hand-washing, to prevent transmission. The ministry has also advised all health agencies, facilities and laboratories to monitor the possibility of a new virus or microorganism discovery among severe pneumonia patients and to be prepared for treating and isolating patients found to have been infected by the virus.
The WHO in a statement on Monday called on other countries to brace for any possible spread, adding that its director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, would consult with Emergency Committee members and could call for a meeting of the committee at short notice.
Pulmonologist Fathiyah Isbaniah of the University of Indonesia said the public should not panic and should maintain hygiene by regularly washing hands, eating a healthy diet and avoiding cigarettes and alcohol.
She cited a Chinese expert reporting that the new coronavirus' genetic sequence had a 80 percent similarity with that of SARS, assuring however that Indonesia was not largely affected by the 2002 SARS outbreak. WHO data show that Indonesia had recorded two probable cases of SARS as of December 2003.
"If human-to-human transmission is proven and an outbreak is reported in Indonesia, then the government should prepare from early on by providing antivirus and hospitals for the disease. For now, public awareness on prevention efforts should be enhanced," Fathiyah said.
The Indonesian Embassy in Beijing, and the Indonesian Consulate in Hong Kong have not recorded any Indonesian citizens affected by the virus but called on Indonesian citizens visiting and living in the regions to remain alert amid the outbreak.
