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The Home Affairs Ministry's director general of regional administration development, Safrizal ZA. (ANTARA/HO-Kemendagri) - 

Home Affairs Minister Tito Karnavian has issued a ministerial instruction to regulate COVID-19 prevention measures during the MotoGP event at the Mandalika International Street Circuit, West Nusa Tenggara in 2022, a ministry's official stated.

The ministry's Director General of Regional Administration Development, Safrizal ZA, remarked that the Mandalika Circuit will host the MotoGP official pre-season test on February 11-13 and Mandalika MotoGP on March 18-20.

The enactment of Home Affairs Ministry Instruction No. 08 of 2022 is aimed at ensuring the COVID-19 situation will remain under control before, during, and after the MotoGP event at the circuit, he noted.

"The ministry's instruction, which would be effective until March 21, 2022, regulates that at most 100 thousand spectators will be allowed, with occupancy rate at the festival class being restricted to 10 percent of the total capacity," Safrizal stated in his e-mail received in Jakarta on Saturday.

MotoGP spectators and participants, including racers, team crews, and officials, would be required to complete their second vaccine dose and present their COVID-19 test certificate with negative results before being allowed to participate in the event, the director general explained.

Spectators from outside Lombok Island are required to submit the COVID-19 test certificate with samples attained by PCR testing a day before their arrival, while spectators from Lombok Island have an additional option to furnish the test certificate with samples attained by antigen testing a day before their arrival, and their PCR test certificate will be valid for two days, he added.

"(Participants) are required to complete their second vaccine dose and present the COVID-19 PCR test certificate with negative results performed a day before their arrival. They are also obligated to undergo another PCR testing after they arrive in Lombok," Safrizal stated.

He also noted that the ministry's directive instructed regional governments to expedite their vaccination efforts to achieve 80-percent coverage for the first and second vaccine doses and continue offering booster vaccine doses by a week at the latest before the MotoGP competition's date.

Regional authorities should additionally prepare healthcare facilities, backup health workers, and activate COVID-19 task forces in the provinces, cities, districts, and sub-districts until the lowest community level, the director general remarked.

To prevent public crowding that might be causal to the spread of the COVID-19 infection, regional governments must discourage residents from setting up tents or organising community gatherings to watch MotoGP competitions outside the Mandalika Circuit, Safrizal remarked.

Apart from encouraging intensive coordination among regional leaders, he also expressed hope that the public would actively partake in ensuring that the MotoGP event at the Mandalika Circuit would be held in a healthy and safe manner to safeguard from the potential spread of the COVID-19 infection//ANT