VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Indonesia's government has pledged to help over 17 thousand tourism workers in North Sumatra currently reeling from the socio-economic impacts of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, the Province's Tourism Office Head, Ria Novida Telaumbanua, stated.

"The central and provincial governments have been striving to assist business players in the tourism sector and their workers severely hit by the COVID-19 outbreak," she informed local journalists in Medan, the capital of North Sumatra Province, on Tuesday.

To this end, the Ministry of Tourism/Creative Economy Agency has offered 16,100 packages of basic necessities and ready-to-eat food items for the affected tourism workers in North Sumatra, Telaumbanua remarked.

Right from the early phase of the COVID-19 outbreak, which initially struck the Chinese city of Wuhan at the end of 2019, and since then spread all across the globe, the tourism industry was the first and hardest-hit business sector in North Sumatra, she pointed out.

Speaking in connection with the reopening of tourist destinations in the province, Telaumbanua affirmed that the North Sumatra provincial administration had left the decision on the district and city governments since they were aware of the COVID-19-related situation in their administrative areas. (ANTARA)