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'No need' to evacuate Indonesians from Hubei: Minister
Muhadjir's statement comes as other countries prepare to evacuate their citizens from Wuhan, which is currently under lockdown.
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Staff members hold photographs of Indonesian students from Aceh trapped in the Chinese city of Wuhan following a lockdown due to a deadly virus outbreak, at an information booth in Banda Aceh on January 28, 2020. - The virus, which can cause a pneumonia-like acute respiratory infection, has in a matter of weeks killed more 106 people and infected more than 4,000 in China, while cases have been identified in more than a dozen other countries. (AFP/Chaideer Mahyuddin)
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oordinating Human Development and Culture Minister Muhadjir Effendy has said Indonesian citizens currently residing in Hubei province in China - the epicenter of the ongoing novel coronavirus outbreak - do not need to be evacuated just yet.
"The government has prepared for evacuation if it is really necessary. For now the evacuation scheme is not being carried out as it is not yet considered necessary," Muhadjir said after a joint meeting on the coronavirus at his office on Tuesday.
Muhadjir's statement comes as other countries prepare to evacuate their citizens from Wuhan, which is currently under lockdown.
The Straits Times reported on Tuesday that Japanese and American nationals could be flown out of the city as soon as Tuesday while the French government has confirmed that its citizens will be evacuated by midweek.
According to the Foreign Ministry, 243 Indonesians are currently in Wuhan and the surrounding Hubei province - the majority of whom are students. Several Indonesian students there have already expressed their desire to return home.
Read also: Coronavirus outbreak: Indonesians in locked-down Wuhan want to come home
Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said that evacuation of the Indonesians remained an "open option" but that it would not be easy because the area was under strict lockdown.
"We have to speak to the Chinese authorities because there are a lot of regulations," she said after the meeting on Tuesday.
She added, however, that the ministry had already made preparations for a possible evacuation including the route they would take as well as the quarantine procedures both before departure and after arrival in Indonesia.
She also said that the ministry was making arrangements to send food and other logistics to the quarantined Indonesians as many stores in Hubei have closed following the outbreak.
Retno also confirmed that, as of Tuesday none of the Indonesians in the region were suspected of having contracted the virus.
"It's normal for [the Indonesians] to be anxious, so we are regularly communicating with them and ensuring that their daily needs are met," she said.
