Indonesia imposes stricter requirements on international arrivals; 27, 233 Covid-19 cases on Sunday (July 4)

A policeman keeps watch on an empty street in Bandung onSunday, July 4, 2021, as Indonesia implemented new restrictions to curb the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus. - AFP

JAKARTA, July 4 (dpa/Xinhua): The Covid-19 cases in Indonesia rose by 27, 233 within one day to 2, 284, 084 overall, with the death toll adding by 555 to 60, 582, the Health Ministry said on Sunday.

According to the ministry, 13, 127 more people were discharged from hospitals, bringing the total number of recovered patients to 1, 928, 274.

The virus has spread to all the country's 34 provinces.

Specifically, within the past 24 hours, Jakarta recorded 10, 485 new cases, West Java 4, 458, Central Java 2, 955, Yogyakarta 1, 615 and East Java 1, 468.

Indonesia also has imposed stricter coronavirus screening measures on international arrivals as the country battles an unprecedented wave of cases, officials said on Sunday.

All arrivals from abroad, whether Indonesian citizens or foreigners, must provide a certificate of "complete vaccination" before they are allowed to enter the country, said Ganip Warsito, the head of the national Covid-19 task force said.

In addition, they must undergo a mandatory eight-day quarantine, he said at an online press conference.

Previously, a five-day quarantine was mandatory, as was a negative PCR test upon arrival and another one seven days later.

The new measure will be in effect starting Monday.

Warsito said the mandatory vaccine certificate is exempted for ministerial-level foreign officials and foreigners from countries with which Indonesia has forged a reciprocal travel corridor arrangement.

Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Mahendra Siregar said Indonesia was not closing its borders as the emergency partial lockdown measures did not ban international air travel.

"International travel is still allowed, but we are imposing stricter requirements, ” Siregar said.

The second wave of the Covid-19 outbreak, made worse by the highly contagious Delta variant, has put a strain on Indonesia’s hospitals across the island of Java and Bali, where a partial lockdown is scheduled to be in place until July 20.

Officials said they want to halve the number of daily new cases to below or slightly above 10, 000 each day and lower the positivity rate to below 5 per cent, from the current level of around 20 per cent.