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Government rolls out GeNose screening test at 21 airports
The government has approved the homegrown COVID-19 breathalyzer for testing domestic passengers at 21 airports, including the international airport in Bali, but the scientific community remains skeptical in the absence of a peer-reviewed paper on the screening device.
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A worker arranges several GeNose devices on a rack in this handout photo from Gadjah Mada University. (Gadjah Mada University/Handout)
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eNose, the locally developed COVID-19 breathalyzer, has been approved for use at 21 airports across the country with plans to expand to other airports, the transportation minister has said.
“We are going to use GeNose in nearly 100 airports, so it can cover the eastern Indonesia region, too,” minister Budi Karya Sumadi stated in a press release on Saturday.
The government started trialing GeNose in March at several airports for direct testing of airport and airline staff. Direct trials for passengers started earlier this month, when the international airports in Bandung, Surabaya, Yogyakarta and Palembang adopted GeNose for testing domestic passengers.
The latest airports to offer the newly approved COVID-19 breath test includes Indonesia’s second busiest airport, I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport in Denpasar, Bali.
Last week, Tourism and Creative Economy Minister Sandiaga Uno said the government planned to expand the use of GeNose in May at Soekarno-Hatta in Tangerang, Banten, the country’s busiest airport and international hub.
The government has been introducing the screening test at airports and train stations to revive domestic tourism, which had slumped as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
