Antara, Jakarta – The Health Ministry spokesperson for the COVID-19 vaccination, Siti Nadia Tarmizi, said it is impossible for the government to block the entry of international travelers despite the Omicron variant having entered the country.

"It is really impossible to block the return of Indonesian citizens to the country," said Nadia in a talk show, Thursday, December 30.

Nadia said the government has not yet planned to completely close the country's entrance gates, either by land, sea, or air considering many international travelers include Indonesian citizens. The government, she added, also had no plans to add more countries to the entry ban list. "We are still studying this," she added.

However, Nadia asserted that based on existing regulations, examinations through the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test with whole-genome sequencing (WGS) and S-gene target failure (SGTF) would continue to be exercised on international travelers entering Indonesia.

The government also tightened the 10-day quarantine mandatory rules for international travelers and the 14-day quarantine mandatory for those from 13 countries listed in the no-entry list.

Source: https://en.tempo.co/read/1545051/omicron-govt-says-impossible-to-ban-entry-of-international-traveler