New entry guidelines for Indonesia

PETALING JAYA: Malaysian travellers heading to Indonesia will need to upload proof of vaccination on the republic’s PeduliLindungi tracing application before entering the country.

The application was developed by the Indonesian government to support its measures against Covid-19 in the country.

According to the circular issued by Indonesia’s Covid-19 Task Force yesterday, travellers are required to comply with the country’s latest health protocols, including downloading the PeduliLindungi tracing app, show proof of their second Covid-19 vaccination obtained at least 14 days prior to departure, and have insurance covering Covid-19 medication and evacuation to referral hospitals.

For foreign nationals, they will first have to go online at https://www.pedulilindungi.id/register to apply for verification.

On the website, they will be asked to register, submit verification and provide additional information.

Indonesia’s Ministry of Health will verify this information through the respective embassies. The ministry will then grant approval after data verification has been completed.

After the prospective visitors receive the data verification from Indonesia’s Health ministry via email, they will have to download and install the PeduliLindungi app on their mobile phones.

Asean health ministers had earlier agreed on mutual recognition of Covid-19 vaccination certificates to ensure smooth and safe cross-border travel.

The Star also reported that there is a verification app that can be used to scan a QR code in the MySejahtera vaccination certificate.

Recently, there were a number of cases involving the “selling” of fake Covid-19 digital vaccination certificates by unscrupulous people, including doctors, to unvaccinated people who want to be registered as “vaccinated” in their MySejahtera app in Malaysia.

The authorities, including the Health Ministry, took action by arresting the suspects involved in falsifying and selling the certificates.

IT manager Cammile Fernandez, 36, who will be travelling to Surabaya, Indonesia, said her family had to upload their Covid-19 vaccine certificate online via the PeduliLindungi application for verification.

“It will link automatically to the PeduliLindungi application. We still need to download the app before travelling,” she said in an interview.

She is going there for a short holiday at the end of the month.

“Without the PCR testing requirement, it will be easy for us as we are a big family. It will also be cheaper for us,” said the mother of four from Subang.

Indonesia announced on Tuesday that it no longer requires a negative pre-departure test for foreign and domestic travellers.

The latest measures are part of the country’s transition to living with the virus.

The easing of pandemic restrictions in Indonesia follows countries like Singapore, South Korea and Malaysia, which also dropped their outdoor mask mandates in recent weeks.According to an Indonesian embassy official in Kuala Lumpur, the application helps the Indonesian government in its tracing efforts to stop the spread of Covid-19.

The application also supports the Indonesian government’s vaccination programme by providing features such as vaccination status, vaccination history and tickets, and vaccine certificates.