Residents walk past the Indonesia-East Timor border post of Mota Ain in Belu, East Nusa Tenggara (ANTARA)
Kupang - East Timor has implemented a lockdown from Thursday as a precautionary measure to check the spread of coronavirus in the region and has closed its border with Indonesia. The lockdown will be in place till April 19.
This was confirmed by Marciana Dominika Jone, head of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) regional office, on Thursday. NTT shares land borders with East Timor.
There are three border checkpoints between NTT and East Timor at Mota Ain, Meta Mauk/Mota Masin, and Wini. Mota Ain is the largest of the entry-points.
"We have just received information from the immigration attaché of the Indonesian Embassy in Dili, East Timor, that the country has enacted a lockdown from Thursday," Jone said in Kupang, the capital of NTT .
"The lockdown would certainly affect us. East Timor is making efforts to prevent any coronavirus transmission to their region, and we are aiming for the same thing — that COVID-19 does not come to our land, especially NTT," Jone noted.
During the lockdown, Indonesians who are currently in East Timor would not be able to return home to Atambua and Belu Municipality, in particular. Also, no one would be allowed to enter East Timor. The restriction will not only apply to people, but also to movement of goods.
NTT Governor Victor Laiskodat had earlier announced plans to shut down his province and close all entry gates. However, that did not pan out as the decision to impose a lockdown rests with the central government. (ANTARA)
Fifteen COVID-19 patients in Indonesia have made a full recovery, while the death toll from the virus has increased to 25, said Achmad Yurianto, the spokesman for the Indonesian Government's coronavirus response team.
The number of people who have recovered from the virus has increased to 15, Yurianto said at a press conference in Jakarta on Thursday.
However, he said, the death toll has also risen to 25 from 19 the previous day, with five more deaths reported from Jakarta and one from Central Java.
So far, Yurianto added, 309 people have tested positive for COVID-19 in the country. Additional cases have been reported from Banten (ten), Yogyakarta (two), Jakarta (52), West Java (two), Central Java (four), East Java (one), Kalimantan East (two), Riau Islands (two), North Sumatra (one), Southeast Sulawesi (three), South Sulawesi (two), and Riau (one).
"The total number of cases till date is 309," he said.
Yurianto added that the mortality rate among patients is about eight percent. “Hopefully no one else will die," he remarked.
With the exception of one patient aged 37 years, most of the patients who died of the virus were aged between 45 and 65 years, he said.
Most of them had comorbidities such as diabetes, hypertension, and chronic heart disease, he noted. (ANTARA)
The application of social distancing concept at airports. (ANTARA)
PT Angkasa Pura II is applying the social distancing concept at airports managed by the company to contain the further spread of coronavirus (COVID-19).
Distance-keeping measures are being put in place by optimizing the available space at terminals to create the recommended distance between aircraft passengers, particularly in areas where they gather. The measures encompass placing several yellow lines on the floor, each a meter away, as a marker of queue boundaries for aircraft passengers.
"The yellow lines prompt every passenger to stand within a safe distance at each point in the queue in order to minimize the risk of the COVID-19 spread," President Director of PT Angkasa Pura II, Muhammad Awaluddin, noted in a statement received in Jakarta, Wednesday.
The yellow lines were placed at several areas, including on the floor towards the security check point (SCP), as well as on the fixed bridge and aerobridge floors to maintain a safe distance between passengers boarding the aircraft.
Moreover, a limit has been placed on the number of people boarding each elevator at the passenger terminal. People are advised to not face one another inside elevators and instead look towards the walls and doors.
PT Angkasa Pura II had also rearranged chairs in the boarding lounge to ensure the required distance is maintained between passengers.
Such measures are being applied at several airports, including the Soekarno-Hatta Airport, Depati Amir Airport in Pangkalpinang, Supadio Airport in Pontianak, Kualanamu, and Banyuwangi.
"We have made various efforts to be applied at airports to avert the spread of COVID-19," Awaluddin stated.
Social distancing being practiced at terminals is an additional measure apart from the existing efforts to use disinfectant sprays, adding more hand sanitizers, and checking the body temperature of passengers, earlier applied by PT Angkasa Pura II. (ANTARA)