JAKARTA: Indonesia has eased its COVID-19 restrictions on the popular tourist island of Bali, though international travellers will face stricter protocols on arrival to assist curb the spread of new variants, a senior minister stated on Monday (Sep 13).
Tourist spots in most parts of the island will now accept visitors, maritime and investment minister Luhut Panjaitan told a virtual conference, as long as they adhere to strict protocols, such as proving their vaccination status on a government-verified phone app.
“The rapidly improving COVID-19 situation in Java and Bali has caused the PPKM level to decline faster than we expected,” Panjaitan advised the conference, referring to Indonesia’s system of social mobility restrictions.
The level of social mobility restrictions in Bali will be evaluated weekly.
International visitors, however, must undergo an eight-day quarantine and take three PCR tests before they enter the island.
“Firm action” would be taken against those who flout the restrictions, Panjaitan stated, but he didn’t say what those penalties would include.
Later at the conference, Indonesia’s health minister, Budi Gunadi Sadikin, stated that borders to the nation would be tightened.
“The government has decided to strengthen the nation’s entry points, by equipping and tightening the quarantine process at sea, land and air,” Sadikin stated, adding that Indonesia would strengthen the use of genome sequencing to quickly identify new variants of the coronavirus.
Plans to reopen Bali to foreign tourists earlier this year were scrapped when the nation was overwhelmed by a devastating second wave driven by the highly infectious Delta variant.
