All of the 237 Indonesian citizens and one American spouse of an Indonesian national who were evacuated from Wuhan and other cities in China were discharged on Saturday after a 14-day quarantine in Natuna, Riau Islands, after being declared free of the coronavirus.

The 42 members of the evacuation team and five Indonesian Embassy staffers from Beijing who assisted the operation were also released from quarantine on Saturday.

“They are now the health ambassadors, I'd say. They’re very healthy,” Health Minister Terawan Agus Putranto said
on Saturday.

“They are free to go. Go see the Java Jazz [music festival] if they want to,” he added, implying that people should not worry about their presence in public spaces after their return.

To reassure the public, the Health Ministry has given the evacuees health certificates showing they are free from COVID-19, the disease resulting from the novel coronavirus. The health agencies in the evacuees’ respective hometowns will continue to monitor the evacuees after they return home.

The quarantine of the Indonesian citizens ended on Saturday at 12 p.m., two weeks after the government evacuated them from Wuhan and the surrounding Hubei province on Feb. 2.

On Saturday, the evacuees boarded two Boeing planes and a Hercules aircraft operated by the Indonesian Air Force and were flown to Halim Perdanakusuma Air Base in Jakarta. The first flight took off from Natuna at 1:20 p.m., and the third and final flight departed at 2 p.m. All three flights had arrived in Jakarta by the afternoon, and the formerly quarantined Indonesians headed to their respective hometowns in 30 provinces across the country. Sixty-five of the evacuees are from West Java.

Many were welcomed home by local officials, including by East Kalimantan Governor Isran Noor, who flew to Jakarta to accompany evacuees from the province on the last leg of their journey.

World Health Organization representative to Indonesia Navaratnasamy Paranietharan congratulated Indonesia for the evacuation and quarantine, confirming that all the people returning from Natuna were healthy, both physically and mentally.

“They’re all free of the coronavirus, and they’re the same as you and me. There’s no room for any stigma; they’re perfectly fine,” Paranietharan said.

An evacuee named Yusuf Azhar, a 22-year-old student of Central China Normal University in Wuhan, shared his quarantine experience with the media, saying that he and fellow evacuees had been satisfied with the facilities provided during the quarantine.

“After our arrival, they provided us with towels, water dippers, soap and much more. Twice a day we got clean clothes. We ate three times a day. The water was clean, though sometimes there were problems, but the Indonesian Military quickly responded and solved them,” he said.

Yusuf said that he and the other patients underwent body temperature and blood pressure checks twice a day. He said all the evacuees were in good health throughout the quarantine and that they spent time doing light workouts every day.

Many other evacuees chose not to talk to the media on Saturday when they arrived at the Halim Perdanakusuma Air Base, saying they were tired and needed some rest.

Health Ministry Disease Control and Environmental Health Director General Anung Sugihantono said that health authorities neither collected nor tested specimens from the evacuees during the quarantine.

“There was no such test because we were observing, not trying to confirm a case,” he said.

Paranietharan was of the same opinion, saying that there had been no reason to test samples from the 285 quarantined people because no one had shown symptoms.

“Although our guidance for the incubation period is 14 days, when looking at the evidence, the average incubation period is only five to six days. So if nobody has shown any symptoms on the fourteenth day, then we have no reason to worry,” he said.

“All I can say is that it was probably because they were not in contact with anyone who had the coronavirus, as simple as that,” he added.

Terawan once again said that prayers were among the reasons for the successful 14-day quarantine.

Indonesia has not reported a single confirmed COVID-19 case but is observing two suspected cases in Manado and Maluku.

While the fact that there are zero known cases in the country has brought relief, it has also raised questions about what sets Indonesia apart from countries with confirmed cases. (aly)

Popular

Great Barrier Reef hit by record bleaching

Govt to undo latest curbs on personal imports

Middle East on edge as Israel and Iran trade threats