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Government remains on alert though no coronavirus found among Hubei evacuees
The Chinese government has placed Wuhan, a city of around 11 million inhabitants, under lockdown since Jan. 23.
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Officials in full protective gear wait for Indonesian students to disembark from a Batik Airline plane at Hang Nadim International Airport in Batam on Sunday, following their evacuation from the Chinese city of Wuhan due to a deadly SARS-like virus. (AFP/HANDOUT / Indonesian Embassy)
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edical examinations found that no Indonesians who were evacuated from Wuhan — the epicenter of the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak — and surrounding cities in China's Hubei province showed signs of being infected, the government has said.
The government evacuated on Sunday 243 people from the region — comprising 237 Indonesian nationals, a foreigner and five Foreign Ministry officials — using a Batik Air Airbus A-330 from China to Hang Nadim International Airport in Batam, Riau Islands.
Separate planes operated by the Indonesian Air Force then transferred the passengers to Raden Sadjad Air Force Base in Natuna on the same day. Their health will be monitored there for the next 14 days.
“As of this morning, all of the evacuees and the team who picked them up have already undergone medical examinations. All were declared to be in good health,” Health Ministry spokesperson Widyawati told reporters in a briefing in Jakarta on Monday.
She went on to add that the ministry, the Indonesian Military (TNI) and relevant authorities had taken steps to provide adequate temporary housing for the returnees, who are under continuous observation.
The Health Ministry's director general for disease control and prevention, Anung Sugihantono, said the returnees would be periodically examined, including twice-daily temperature checks, adding that the government had been monitoring the health of Indonesian nationals who had refused to be flown home on Sunday.
The Health Ministry has prepared several scenarios for after the 14-day quarantine period, including to extend the quarantine in Natuna or prepare medical evacuations to more advanced healthcare facilities if any evacuees exhibited signs of the new coronavirus.
