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Indonesia to repatriate nationals from epicenter of coronavirus outbreak
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People dressed in protective clothes disinfect an area in Wuhan, in Hubei province on January 29, 2020. (AFP/Hector Retamal)
I
ndonesia is gearing up to evacuate its citizens from China's Hubei province — the epicenter of a novel coronavirus outbreak that has killed more than 170 people — as Beijing says it is ready to facilitate the move.
Officials have provided no specific timeline but said all preparations were ready for when the time came.
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo ordered the repatriation of Indonesians from the province after meeting several of his ministers, including Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi.
“The President has instructed [us] to immediately evacuate Indonesian citizens from Hubei province,” Retno said after the meeting.
Retno earlier said Indonesia was carrying out intense and detailed coordination with Chinese authorities so that the Indonesians could be brought home amid a lockdown in Wuhan — the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak that has killed more than 170 people — and the surrounding Hubei province.
“We have coordinated [with China], and they are willing to facilitate the evacuation," she said.
At least 243 Indonesians are trapped in Hubei, but the government suspects that the number is higher, as many are believed not to have reported their whereabouts.
The government says it is finalizing plans to move its nationals from seven locations in Hubei to a pick-up point at Wuhan airport. A team from the Indonesian Embassy in Beijing is currently in a nearby area to help execute
the operation.
The embassy is also updating its data on Indonesian citizens in the province, and the government will conduct the evacuation as soon as officials have a complete list of expected evacuees, according to Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah.
Among the prospective evacuees are 12 students enrolled in the Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), who have been told by the embassy to get ready for evacuation, joining other Indonesians in Hubei.
"We hope the evacuation and cooperation by the Indonesian Embassy in China, the Foreign Ministry, the National Disaster Mitigation Agency and the Indonesian Air Force goes well," Khoirul Umam Hasbiy, the head of the Indonesian Students Association in China (PPIT) branch at the university, said in a statement.
"We have been asked to prepare our passports, parental permission slips and other documents," he said, adding that he did not know when exactly he and other Indonesians would be airlifted from Hubei.
Retno said she was in close contact with her counterpart in Canberra as Australia also planned to evacuate its citizens from Hubei.
The Indonesian mission in China is also in touch with the United States and Japan — the first two countries to fly their citizens out of Hubei.
"We need to learn from each other about how to evacuate our citizens as soon as possible," Retno said, adding that evacuations were not simple and that the government needed to look into the distribution of Indonesians of Hubei and how to transport them amid the lockdown.
The Air Force is keeping three aircraft and health personnel on standby to fly the Indonesians out of Hubei once the government gives the green light for the operation. The government has designated Sulianto Saroso Infection Hospital in Sunter, North Jakarta, as a quarantine facility to observe the inbound citizens once they arrive in Indonesia.
Retno said any measures to handle the evacuees upon their arrival including possible quarantine were are in the hands of the Health Ministry and other relevant authorities.
The Indonesian students at HUST, according to Khoirul, were in a dilemma as they faced the prospect of being quarantined after the evacuation, but he and his colleagues were trying to think positively and thought quarantine in Indonesia was a better option than staying in their dorms in Hubei, especially as one of their Pakistani friends living under the same roof was believed to have contracted the virus.
The Foreign Ministry previously said Indonesia had two options: moving its citizens from Hubei to safer areas within China or bringing them back and quarantining them at home.
Retno said Jakarta was also coordinating with the Indonesian students to ensure they were able to afford basic necessities amid price increases, adding: “The supplies will be enough for at least the next seven days.”
China reported its biggest single-day jump in novel coronavirus deaths on Thursday, while confirmation that three Japanese citizens evacuated from the outbreak's epicenter were infected deepened fears about a global contagion, AFP reported.
The number of confirmed infections in China had grown steadily to 7,711, the National Health Commission said. Another 81,000 people were under observation for possible infection.
The World Health Organization — which initially played down the severity of the disease — has urged all governments to be "on alert" as it weighs whether to declare a global health emergency , which could lead to travel or trade restrictions. (ami)
