VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI) has urged the government to install thermal scanners at all departure terminals for both domestic and international flights at all airports across the country to prevent the spread of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

"At the moment, the government has just installed the thermal scanners at the areas of arrival terminals for international flights," YLKI Chairman Tulus Abadi said in a press statement that ANTARA received in Jakarta on Tuesday.

The presence of those thermal scanners would create a sense of security and comfort for passengers, cabin crew, and other people at the airports so that their mobility would not be disrupted by the threats of COVID-19, he said.

Since the early stages of COVID-19 outbreak, the airport authorities in Singapore, Hong Kong, and Chinese cities have installed thermal scanners, he added.

The Indonesian government has put in place precautionary measures since the early stage of the coronavirus outbreak that first struck the Chinese city of Wuhan at the end of December 2019.

In addition to installing thermal scanners at the country's airports and seaports, as well as making preparations at hospitals across the archipelago, the Indonesian government repatriated several hundred citizens.

On February 2, 238 Indonesian nationals were airlifted from Wuhan, China, to then be quarantined in Natuna District's Riau Islands Province. All of these Indonesians were found to be healthy and reunited with their families.

The Indonesian government also repatriated 188 Indonesians employed as crew members of the cruise ship World Dream Liner, and 69 Indonesians employed as cabin crew on the Diamond Princess cruise ship.

The World Dream cruise ship's crew members and 69 cabin crew of the Diamond Princess had been sent to Sebaru Kecil Island, Jakarta's Thousand Islands, for a 14-day quarantine.

On March 2, 2020, President Jokowi declared that two Indonesians had tested positive for COVID-19. They were quarantined in an isolated room at the Jakarta-based Sulianti Saroso Infectious Diseases Hospital.

The deadly virus outbreak, which has spread to 109 countries and territories around the world, has claimed at least 4,000 lives – most of whom are in China – and infected over 113,000 people worldwide.

The Indonesian authority has reported that there have been 27 confirmed COVID-19 cases within the country, as of Tuesday.