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RI heightens virus precautions at ports of entry
Pandemic fears: A Port Health Office worker monitors the body temperature of passengers through a thermal scanner in the arrival hall of I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali on Wednesday
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andemic fears: A Port Health Office worker monitors the body temperature of passengers through a thermal scanner in the arrival hall of I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali on Wednesday. Thermal scanners have been installed at airports and seaports to detect a new coronavirus, which has killed nine people in Wuhan, China. (JP/Zul Trio Anggono)
Amid a rising death toll and reports of human-to-human transmissions of the Wuhan coronavirus worldwide, the government has said it has increased surveillance at air and water ports and taken other measures aimed at containing the virus.
“We’re currently waiting for the results of the WHO [World Health Organization] meeting, the government will take further steps if a public health emergency is declared,” the Health Ministry’s contagious disease prevention and monitoring director, Wiendra Waworuntu, said at a press conference on Wednesday.
For its containment strategy, she said Indonesia adhered to the 2005 WHO International Health Regulations and would follow guidelines from the WHO if issued.
The world is in a state of alarm after the coronavirus, which bears similarities to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), was first detected on Dec. 31, 2019 in Wuhan, China. The new strain of virus has infected at least 440 people to date, killing nine.
The WHO was due to hold an emergency meeting on Wednesday to determine whether to declare a rare global public health emergency over the disease, which has now been detected in the United States, Taiwan, Thailand, Japan, South Korea and Macau.
“We’ve already increased our surveillance after it was announced it could transmitted between humans. However, once the WHO declares a Public Health Emergency of International Concern [PHIEC], it will publish guidelines that countries must be follow,” Soekarno-Hatta International Airport health authority chief Anas Ma’ruf said.
The ministry’s spokesperson, Widyawati, said health authorities had taken precautions at 19 prioritized ports of entry that have direct connections with China.
“We have prepared 860 sets of personal protection equipment [APD] and 12,322 N95 masks for port authority staff and 35,000 health alert cards to be handed out to passengers” she said.
Among the 19 prioritized ports of entry are air and seaports in Jakarta, Balikpapan (East Kalimantan), Bandung (West Java), Surabaya (East Java), Bali and Manado (North Sulawesi).
Anas said there were 20 direct and 30 indirect flights from China to Soekarno-Hatta airport, which carry 5,000 passengers daily.
Lion Air is the only Indonesian airline that has a direct route to Wuhan, with a route connecting the city to Denpasar, Bali. The airline said it had provided face masks, gloves and hand sanitizer for its passengers at Kuala Lumpur and Wuhan airports as a precaution to contain the spread of the virus.
The Health Ministry's surveillance and quarantine director, Vensya Sitohang, said the ministry had also appointed 100 hospitals that had previously been prepared to handle the H5N1 avian flu outbreak to admit any infected patients.
At the epicenter of the outbreak in Wuhan, authorities cancelled large public events, called on visitors to stay away and urged residents not to leave the central Chinese city of 11 million people.
The illness is mainly transmitted via the respiratory tract and there "is a possibility of virus mutation and a risk of further spread of the epidemic", China’s National Health Commission vice minister Li Bin told a news conference in Beijing, as quoted by AFP.
He also cautioned people “not to go to Wuhan and those in Wuhan please do not leave the city".
The Chinese government has classified the outbreak in the same category as the SARS epidemic, which killed nearly 650 people across mainland China and Hong Kong in 2002 and 2003. It has also imposed compulsory isolation for those diagnosed with the illness.
Li said that 1,394 people were still under medical observation, while 765 others had been discharged.
However, Chinese authorities have yet to confirm the exact source of the virus.
A prominent expert from the Chinese health commission confirmed this week that the virus could be passed between people. However, animals are suspected to be the primary source of the outbreak.
"We already know that the disease originated from a market that conducted illegal transactions of wild animals," said Gao Fu, the director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
He said it was clear "this virus is adapting and mutating". (mpr)
