Jakarta - State airport operator PT Angkasa Pura II (Persero) is set to tighten its surveillance of incoming international passengers from South Korea, Italy, Iran and Japan where the impact of coronavirus or COVID-19 is escalating.

"Today I have just received an instruction to tighten surveillance, not ban, of international passengers from Korea, Japan, Iran and Italy," PT Angkasa Pura II (Persero) President Director Muhammad Awaluddin said on the sidelines of SOE Performance Excellence Award 2020 in Jakarta on Wednesday.

PT Angkasa Pura II has to coordinate with national and international airlines such as Garuda Indonesia, Japan Airlines, and Korean Air that serve routes from and to the countries, Awaluddin said. However, no airlines serve direct flights from Indonesia to Iran and Italy.

Besides, PT Angkasa Pura II will also coordinate with customs, immigration and health quarantine authorities, he said.

"The most important thing is the (coordination with) the health quarantine authorities. It is likely that during a certain period they (the international passengers) cannot leave the airport but must be quarantined or taken to certain hospitals," he said.

The company is preparing a standard operating procedure (SOP) to tighten the surveillance of international passengers from the four countries. The SOP was once applied to passengers from China, he said.

To date, the Port Health Office (KKP) has exclusive SOP to supervise passengers from the country where a new strain of coronavirus first broke out. Through the SOP, every passenger is required to have their body temperature checked before leaving the aircraft.

"It is different from the procedure applied to passengers from an unaffected country. As usual, they pass through the thermal scanner at the gate heading to the immigration counters," he said. (ANTARA)