TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Indonesian cruise crew arrives in Bali from virus-hit Italy, tests negative for COVID-19
The repatriated crew members of the MSC Splendida cruise ship have tested negative for COVID-19, but are still to undergo self-quarantine.
Change Size
I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport in Denpasar, Bali, implements physical distancing measures under the supervision of state-owned airport operator PT Angkasa Pura I. (AP I/Handout)
A total of 316 Indonesian crew members of the MSC Splendida cruise ship from Genoa, Italy, have been repatriated to Indonesia from the coronavirus-hit European country and arrived in Bali's provincial capital of Denpasar on Monday.
Indonesia's Foreign Ministry said that the crew members, who returned home on Qatar Airways, had undergone health tests prior to their departure and they had not shown any symptoms of COVID-19.
"During the whole repatriation process, the government through the Indonesian Embassy in Rome has engaged in intense communication with the crew members to ensure their conditions," the ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
Bali Manpower Agency head Ida Bagus Ngurah Arda confirmed that the Indonesian crew members had arrived at Bali's I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport on Monday evening.
They had their body temperatures checked as soon as they arrived at the airport and had their blood samples taken for COVID-19 rapid tests by the airport's health authorities, he said.
"The results came out negative," Arda said on Monday.
The 316 crew members would not be put into medical isolation, but he said they were required to undergo self-quarantine.
Bali Airport Authority head Elfi Amir also confirmed that the 316 crew members of the MSC Splendida had undergone medical tests in Genoa and had been cleared to return home before departing for Bali, kompas.com reported.
Read also: COVID-19: Indonesia steps up measures to anticipate influx of migrant workers returning home
Italy is now the country hardest-hit by the COVID-19 coronavirus in terms of deaths from the disease, with more than a third of global COVID-19 fatalities: 12,428 deaths. The European country recorded 105,792 confirmed COVID-19 cases as of Wednesday, according to Johns Hopkins University.
Prior to the crew members' arrival, Arda said that Bali Governor I Wayan Koster had requested Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi to tell Indonesian missions abroad to do health checks, as well as swab tests, on Indonesian migrant workers who were to be repatriated from other countries to ensure they were not infected by the coronavirus.
Only those who tested negative and healthy were therefore allowed to return to Indonesia, including to Bali, while those who tested positive or were suspected of having been infected should first be treated in the country where they had worked.
Arda said that even though the returning migrant workers had brought health certificates and had not shown any fevers, Balinese authorities would take their blood samples for COVID-19 rapid tests as precautionary measures.
"This is our effort to reduce any risk of further COVID-19 spread into Indonesia and Bali," he said.
Bali, which has seen its tourism industry reduced to shambles by the COVID-19 outbreak, has recorded some 25 cases, with two fatalities as of Wednesday afternoon.
The Southeast Asian country itself has recorded some 1,677 COVID-19-positive cases across the archipelago, with 157 cases that turned fatal.
More Indonesian migrant workers, including crew members of foreign cruise ships, were expected to return home in the coming days as the Indonesian Foreign Ministry said it was in the process of repatriating them.
"The government, in cooperation with companies in charge of recruiting ship crew members, is set to repatriate other crewmen in the near future," the ministry said.
