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Indonesia's 5-day quarantine rule too risky amid case resurgence, new variant: Experts
Current rules require international travelers to quarantine for five days upon arriving in Indonesia, but travel from India is now an exception due to the country's world record-breaking daily coronavirus cases.
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Passengers are seen at Terminal 3 of Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Banten, in July 2020. (JP/Dhoni Setiawan)
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mid a resurgence of COVID-19 cases globally and growing concerns of more transmissible coronavirus variants, doubts have been raised as to whether Indonesia's quarantine policy would be sufficient in protecting the country from these threats.
Current rules require international travelers to quarantine for five days upon arriving in Indonesia, but travel from India is now an exception due to the country's world record-breaking daily coronavirus cases.
Describing India's COVID-19 situation as "worrying", Indonesia has followed several other countries in temporarily suspending visa issuances to Indian nationals and foreigners who have traveled to the South Asian country within the past 14 days. Indonesian nationals with a two-week travel history to India can still enter the archipelago but have to undergo "stricter health protocols" with a longer quarantine period of 14 days upon arrival.
Experts, however, say that the restrictions are not tight enough and have called on the government to require all inbound international travelers — regardless of their point of departure — to undergo the same 14-day quarantine period. They emphasized that there was no scientific evidence supporting the five-day quarantine policy.
"The fact is that so far, one of the important things done by countries that are successful in containing the pandemic is that they implement a strict quarantine system at entry points. None of them requires less than 10 days of quarantine," said epidemiologist Dicky Budiman of Australia's Griffith University.
Read also: Indonesia bans travel from India amid imported COVID-19 case, surge
Countries such as South Korea, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand have a 14-day mandatory quarantine policy for international travelers. Hong Kong has even increased its requirement to 21 days for people coming in from high-risk areas, and those arriving from lower-risk areas must still self-monitor for another seven days and take another coronavirus test after spending 14 days in quarantine.
