Indonesia plans to soon bar foreign nationals from transiting through or entering the country, officials announced on Tuesday, as the government steps up efforts to curb the spread of COVID-19 without heeding growing calls for a complete lockdown to contain the pandemic.

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo announced the travel ban would be effective soon during a limited Cabinet meeting held to discuss possibly repatriating Indonesians from overseas and limiting the entrance of foreigners into the country.

“The President has decided that the current policies needed to be strengthened […] and so it was decided that all visits and transiting by foreign citizens in Indonesia will be temporarily stopped,” Foreign Minister
Retno LP Marsudi told reporters after the Cabinet meeting in Jakarta, a recording of which was circulated to journalists as a physical distancing meas...