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<keyword id="8692" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="indonesia" source="Orion">Indonesia</keyword> has relaunched the multiple entry visa which was deactivated amid the Covid-19 pandemic, a top official said on Monday. "With this visa, business people and foreign tourists are allowed to travel to Indonesia many times a year without re-applying for a visa," <keyword id="106387" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="xinhua-news-agency" source="Orion">Xinhua news agency</keyword> quoted Acting Director General of Immigration Widodo <keyword id="15640151" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="ekatjahjana" source="Orion">Ekatjahjana</keyword> as saying. Every time they visit Indonesia, they can stay for a maximum of 60 days, he added. Holders of this visa are allowed to enter and leave Indonesia in the <keyword id="4254571" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="riau-islands" source="Orion">Riau Islands</keyword> province and they are free to visit other areas in this Southeast Asian country during their stay. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/sustainability/news/eu-to-fill-40-board-posts-with-women/articleshow/95825875.cms">EU to fill 40% board posts with women</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/international/news/globally-one-in-eight-people-today-are-migrants-who/articleshow/95828350.cms">Globally one in eight people today are migrants: WHO</a>

Indonesia relaunches multiple entry visa that was deactivated during the pandemic

At dawn, they would call out the names of the dead.Hendro Utomo, 53, would listen as the loudspeakers from the local mosque announced who had died the day before. "Five, eight dead every day, just in my neighborhood," said Utomo, who runs a food bank. "Every few minutes we hear the ambulances, the sirens, and someone is dying."In July, the Indonesian capital of Jakarta became the Southeast Asian epicenter of the coronavirus <keyword id="11896136" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="pandemic" source="Orion">pandemic</keyword>. <a href="https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/dying-at-home-with-hospitals-full-indonesians-forgo-much-needed-covid-19-treatment">Hospitals were running out of beds or oxygen</a> to keep patients alive. Jakarta's dead were piling up in their own homes because there weren't enough medical facilities to take them. Emergency doctors like Debryna Dewi, 29, had to regularly decide which patients would receive a hospital and which were sent home."That's not something that's ever supposed to happen," she said. "This is not an area hit by an earthquake or a tsunami, it's a hospital in the capital."By mid-August, <a href="https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2021/07/18/nearly-half-of-jakartans-may-have-had-covid-19-serosurvey-suggests.html">nearly half of the city's population of 10 million had contracted the virus</a> and at least <a href="https://corona.jakarta.go.id/en/data-pemantauan">5,200 people</a> had died of <keyword id="11893994" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="covid-19" source="Orion">COVID-19</keyword>. As case counts started flattening out, the government announced <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/indonesia-allow-restaurants-shops-reopen-jakarta-bali-2021-08-23/">on August 23</a> it would relax restrictions in the Jakarta region, reopening restaurants, malls, and places of worship.As of mid-September, <keyword id="11955096" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="indonesia" source="Orion">Indonesia</keyword>'s infections and casualties are declining, <a href="https://covid19.go.id/peta-sebaran-covid19">data collected by the country's Ministry of Health shows.</a> The Minister of Health is emphasizing an <a href="https://setkab.go.id/en/govt-gears-up-for-transition-from-pandemic-to-endemic/">ambitious push</a> to vaccinate Indonesians and move the nation toward being an endemic state that can live with the coronavirus. The tourist island of Bali could open to foreigners by October, said a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/indonesia-may-reopen-tourists-some-countries-october-minister-2021-09-17/">senior minister in charge of the pandemic response.</a>But even as Indonesia sets its sights on these goals, it's still plagued by the same core issues that made its capital so vulnerable during its summer crisis. Through conversations with local doctors, epidemiologists, and data analysts, we identified three of these factors: poor data reporting, gaps in medical access, and a lack of access to vaccines.While Jakarta now touts a <a href="https://corona.jakarta.go.id/en/cakupan-vaksinasi">high vaccination rate</a>, all three issues continue to be pronounced in the rest of Indonesia.Around <a href="https://graphics.reuters.com/world-coronavirus-tracker-and-maps/countries-and-territories/indonesia/">23% of the country's population has been vaccinated,</a> but the bulk of those vaccinations have happened in the capital city, with vaccination numbers hovering in the single digits in many of its more rural provinces. Data analysts in particular are urging caution, concerned that Indonesia isn't collecting or publishing enough pandemic data to know if it's ready to reopen.<div type="image" title="Residents dancing" height="4077" width="6519" msid="86448765" hostid="261"></div>The archipelago of Indonesia consists of five main islands and 6,000 smaller inhabited ones. Its 270 million people are split across 34 provinces. Each province's coronavirus response is overseen by the local governor, similar to the US.Local governments are in charge of sending pandemic data to central authorities to tally Indonesia's daily case and death totals. Therein lies one of the country's core issues: Not all COVID-19 deaths reported in local regions are added to the national count, said Elina Ciptadi, cofounder of Kawal Covid, a volunteer organization of analysts that curates coronavirus data in Indonesia."The data is aggregated from the city level, to the district level, to the provincial level, then on the national level," said Ciptadi. "We don't know where the deaths are disappearing."It's no secret. Indonesia said it doesn't count COVID-19 deaths if the victim <a href="https://nasional.kompas.com/read/2020/11/15/16131881/epidemiolog-kasus-covid-19-capai-5000-per-hari-bukan-hal-mengejutkan">had other pre-existing conditions</a> or <a href="https://www.beritasatu.com/kesehatan/812231/kasus-kematian-2048-orang-kemkes-disebabkan-isoman-tanpa-pantauan-nakes">if they weren't tested</a>. These guidelines run contrary to the <a href="https://www.who.int/classifications/icd/Guidelines_Cause_of_Death_COVID-19.pdf">World Health Organization's (WHO) guidelines.</a>Kawal Covid estimates that Indonesia's actual death toll is up to three-and-a-half times higher than government figures. Lapor Covid, an independent watchdog organization, says the death toll was up to six times worse at one point, according to its observations of villages across the country. In Jakarta alone, <a href="https://corona.jakarta.go.id/en/data-pemantauan">official data</a> shows around 5,200 people died from COVID-19 between June 15 and August 15, but the same reports show there were 12,200 funerals where bodies were buried with COVID-19 procedures.<div type="image" title="COVID-19 burials in Jakarta" height="2666" width="4000" msid="86448766" hostid="261"></div>Both organizations are also not convinced Indonesia is informed enough about its pandemic to say it's ready to reopen. The problem, the experts said, is both because testing is too limited, and because people do not want to admit when they are sick.Even though it's the world's fourth-most populous country, Indonesia has only issued <a href="https://covid19.go.id/peta-sebaran-covid19">36.5 million COVID-19 swab tests</a>, less than the <a href="https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#cases_totaltests">state of Florida.</a>That's partially the fault of local officials, said Pandu Riono, a senior epidemiologist in the University of Indonesia who is consulted as an academic by the Ministry of Health."If they increase testing, they will detect more cases. If they detect more cases, their cities become more red. If their cities are red, there will be more restrictions. They don't want that because the economy will decline," said Riono.Patients are also reluctant to get tested, especially in rural areas."If I'm spending two weeks in quarantine, that's two weeks of my restaurant not being open, or me not driving my taxi. Two weeks of me not putting food on the table for my family," said Ciptadi from Kawal Covid.Now, as Indonesia looks to reopen, Kawal Covid is highlighting the need for audited death records and seroprevalence surveys - <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/seroprevalance-surveys-tell-us.html">a check for COVID-19 antibodies to find out how many people have already been infected</a>. These results could help the government estimate the true scale of their outbreak, said Ciptadi."Because if we look at official data, Indonesia is still a very long way away from claiming an endemic state," she said.<h2>Gaps in medical access</h2>When she saw that Jakarta was on the mend, Dewi, the emergency doctor, decided to leave the capital. She moved to the poorer island of Flores, 1,000 miles east of Jakarta, to work at hospitals there. The difference in medical access is night and day, she said.Dewi said she's had to bring her own emergency equipment with her, like test kits and N95 masks, in case of another outbreak. "You have fewer beds, you have fewer facilities, you have fewer medicines, you have just enough equipment for yourself," she said.Indonesia's healthcare lags behind that of other populous nations. According to the <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.MED.BEDS.ZS">World Bank</a>, it has one hospital bed per 1,000 people, compared to 4.3 beds in China and 2.9 beds in the US. <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.RUR.TOTL.ZS?locations=ID">Forty-three percent of Indonesia's</a> population lives in rural areas. In many of these areas, the norm is for doctors to travel to patients' houses, Dewi said, which means the logistics of administering medical care in a pandemic are much more complicated.In Maluku, another region Dewi worked in before the pandemic, there were only two oxygen tanks available in one island with thousands of residents. And they weren't even filled, she said.<div type="image" title="Debryna Dewi kei Island" height="2976" width="3309" msid="86448767" hostid="261"></div>"That to me is the prime example of the difference between Jakarta and rural areas. If I wanted to get oxygen, I would have to cross the sea to another island," said Dewi."If what happened in Jakarta happens here, it would be crazy," she added. "I don't even want to imagine it."<h2>Without vaccine production, Indonesia has to wait for shots</h2>Authorities have <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-15/indonesia-races-to-meet-vaccination-goal-as-cases-soar-on-delta?sref=BLKWHazc">touted herd immunity</a> at a 70% vaccination rate as the gateway for Indonesia's economy and tourism to restart. Health minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said he expects <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/exclusive-indonesia-aims-reopen-foreigners-november-minister-2021-09-14/">70% of the population</a> to be given their first dose by November.But it's taken Indonesia nine months to get 80 million people their first shot. The country started its vaccination drive in January and has thus far <a href="https://covid19.go.id/peta-sebaran-covid19">only hit 43%</a> of health minister Budi's goal.And though the country is trying to ramp up its vaccination push to administer 50 million doses a month, it has to wait for the <a href="https://vaksin.kemkes.go.id/#/alokasi_vaksin">vaccines to arrive first</a>.<div type="image" title="Indonesia car vaccination" height="2333" width="3500" msid="86448768" hostid="261"></div>Indonesia has no local vaccine production. Its government has reserved <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-09-01/indonesia-reaches-100-million-covid-vaccine-doses-as-curbs-eased?sref=BLKWHazc">86% of the 430 million doses</a> it needs for its vaccination program, <a href="https://www.gavi.org/covax-vaccine-roll-out/indonesia">drawing some from WHO</a> donations while buying the rest piecemeal from other countries. That puts Indonesia at the mercy of other countries where vaccines are produced, who may also need the vaccines and requisition them first, said Riono, the epidemiologist.And once Indonesia receives the vaccines, it has to distribute them all over the country. The doses Indonesia has given out so far have been heavily concentrated on urban provinces like Jakarta, which reached a vaccination rate of <a href="https://vaksin.kemkes.go.id/#/vaccines">73% on September 23</a>. The rest of the country has a vaccination rate of <a href="https://vaksin.kemkes.go.id/#/provinces">17%</a>.Terrain poses a further challenge. Because Indonesia is an archipelago, it can't just drive vaccines to various islands - it has to ferry them via plane or sea. Some rural provinces still have <a href="https://vaksin.kemkes.go.id/#/vaccines">vaccination rates below</a> 10%, while others like Bali and Riau - tourist areas the government seeks to reopen - have 58% and 38% respectively.<div type="image" title="Bali reopening" height="2333" width="3500" msid="86448769" hostid="261"></div>That trend presents a worrying sign of vaccine inequity, which could leave certain parts of the country vulnerable, said Diah Saminarsih, founder of health think tank Center for Indonesia's Strategic Initiatives."The more inequity with vaccines you have, the more likely you will have a variant emerging from that area," said Saminarsih, who is also an advisor to the Director-General of WHO.To be sure, poor data reporting, gaps in medical access, and a lack of vaccine access are not the only issues at play in the scale of Indonesia's COVID-19 crisis. <a href="https://www.iseas.edu.sg/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/ISEAS_Perspective_2021_113.pdf">Experts have also blamed</a> authorities' reluctance to <a href="https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/covid-19-cases-surge-in-indonesia-govt-announces-new-restrictions-but-ignores-pleas-for">enact large-scale lockdowns</a> while cases surged and pointed to the millions of Indonesians who <a href="https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/indonesia-begins-its-eid-al-fitr-travel-ban-as-some-try-to-skirt-rules">ignored travel bans</a> to gather and celebrate the Eid Al-Fitri festival in May. Yet these three issues are the core catalysts that could make Indonesia just as vulnerable as it was before if another wave builds up again.However, epidemiologist Riono said that as long as the country plans its reopening carefully, under tight screening and isolation procedures, it should go ahead."We should have confidence in what we're planning, as long as the implementation is under control," he said.In the meantime, Utomo and his food bank are still picking up the pieces of Jakarta's shattered lower class, running food drives all over the city. <div type="image" title="Food Bank Indonesia" height="576" width="1280" msid="86448771" hostid="261"></div>Utomo is sourcing food for 39,000 starving children in Indonesia, four times the normal demand, he said. His organization is also trying to track down children who are now parentless - the pandemic created an estimated 17,000 orphans in Indonesia, he said."Everybody is acting like we have won. Everyone is acting like it's a festive season," he said. "The problem is still in our hands."

Indonesia is finally emerging from its summer of death. But as the country looks to reopen, 3 of the problems that created its pandemic crisis still loom large.

Antara Foto/via REUTERSMedical officers spray Indonesian nationals with antiseptic as they arrive from Wuhan, China's center of the coronavirus epidemic, and before transferring them to the Natuna Islands military base to be quarantined, at Hang Nadim Airport in Batam, Riau Islands, Indonesia, February 2, 2020<ul class="summary-list"><li>Airplane passengers who flew from Wuhan, China to Batam, Indonesia were sprayed with a substance when they disembarked, according to photos and <a href="https://twitter.com/MurtadhaOne1/status/1223838727568384000">videos</a>. </li><li>According to the <a href="https://kemlu.go.id/portal/en/read/1011/berita/indonesian-government-successfully-repatriated-243-people-from-wuhan-china">Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs</a>, 243 people returned from China's Hubei province and are now in isolation at Natuna Island in Indonesia. </li><li>The government said all passengers who returned to the country had passed health screenings before being allowed off of the Batik Air flight.</li><li>The death toll from the novel coronavirus has reached 304 with all but one occurring in China. </li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</li></ul>Passengers exiting a flight from Wuhan, China to Batam, Indonesia can be seen being sprayed with a substance as they disembark from a plane in photos and videos posted online. In one video posted to Twitter on February 2, passengers can be seen exiting a Batik Air Indonesia flight. When they disembark, individuals wearing yellow hazmat suits and backpacks with the word "ALKOHOL" inscribed on them briefly spray each passenger with a clear mist. It's not immediately clear what the passengers were being sprayed with, though Alkohol translates to Alcohol. A caption on photos of the spray from <a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?id=tag%3Areuters.com%2C2020%3Anewsml_RC29SE9K3FS4&amp;search=all%3A%22tag%3Areuters.com%2C2020%3Anewsml_RC29SE9K3FS4%22">Reuters</a>, also posted on February 2, taken by Indonesia-based <a href="https://www.antarafoto.com/">Antara Foto</a>, refers to it as an "antiseptic." "Indonesian citizens in Wuhan have arrived in Batam," a translation of the tweet says. According to <a href="https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2020/02/02/coronavirus-indonesians-from-wuhan-arrive-in-batam-before-taken-to-natuna-for-quarantine.html">The Jakarta Post</a>, an English-language newspaper located in Indonesia's capital city, the passengers arrived in the Indonesian city on Batam on February 2. A spokesperson for the nation's president said that the passengers on the plane consisted of people who had been trapped in Wuhan and other cities in the Hubei province amid the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-wuhan-lockdown-amid-coronavirus-outbreak-road-rail-air-shut-2020-1">city's travel shutdown</a>, The Jakarta Post reported. "All have been declared healthy according to World Health Organization standards," the spokesperson said Sunday, per The Jakarta Post. The plane landed in Batam at around 8:45 a.m. local time in the city and the passengers were expected to be transported to Natuna Island to remain in isolation on a military base with medical facilities for 14 days before being released. A <a href="https://kemlu.go.id/portal/en/read/1011/berita/indonesian-government-successfully-repatriated-243-people-from-wuhan-china">press release</a> from the Indonesia Ministry of Foreign Affairs said 243 people arrived in the country on the flight, 237 being Indonesian citizens, 1 being the husband of an Indonesian citizen, and 5 being members of the "Advance team of the Indonesian Embassy in Beijing." Seven Indonesian citizens stayed in China, four by choice and three because they did not meet health requirements for the flight. A request for comment to the office of the Indonidea Ministry of Health was not returned, though a photo posted alongside the press release shows the passengers being sprayed with a substance. All passengers have made the journey to Natuna, the press release said. The around 245 on board were flown from Bantam to Natuna on three separate military aircraft, The Jakarta Post reported. The news comes as the novel coronavirus continues to spread and take lives. The death toll now <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-virus-everything-we-know-deadly-2019-ncov-wuhan-spread-2020-1">stands at 304</a> with all deaths but one that occurred in the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/wuhan-coronavirus-first-death-outside-china-phillipines-2020-2">Philippines</a> having occurred in China. At least eight cases of the virus that originated in Wuhan have been reported in the US. President Donald Trump on January 31 announced a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-us-foreigners-travel-ban-china-2020-1">ban on all foreign</a> nationals who had been to China within the past two weeks and restrictions on US citizens re-entering the country from the Hubei province. A student at the University of Massachusetts Boston was <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/boston-wuhan-coronavirus-confirmed-eight-cases-in-us">confirmed</a> on February 1 to have the virus after returning from Wuhan. Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/wuhan-coronavirus-racism-asians-experience-fears-outbreak-2020-1">The Wuhan coronavirus is causing increased incidents of racism and xenophobia at college, work, and supermarkets, according to Asian people</a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-handed-trump-loss-huawei-uk-5g-wuhan-coronavirus-2020-1">Even in the midst of its worst crisis in 15 years, China still handed Trump a mortifying loss</a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-wuhan-coronavirus-china-completes-emergency-hospital-eight-days-2020-2">China just completed work on the emergency hospital it set up to tackle the Wuhan coronavirus, and it took just 8 days to do it</a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/wuhan-coronavirus-first-death-outside-china-phillipines-2020-2">A man in the Philippines has become the first person to die of the Wuhan coronavirus outside of China</a><a href="/intelligence/digital-health?IR=T&amp;itm_source=businessinsider&amp;itm_medium=ctgr_bii&amp;itm_term=ctgr_subscription&amp;itm_content=health&amp;itm_campaign=digital-health"></a>Featured Digital Health Articles: - <a href="/telehealth-industry-explained">Telehealth Industry: Benefits, Services &amp; Examples</a> - <a href="/value-based-care-pay-for-performance-healthcare-model">Value-Based Care Model: Pay-for-Performance Healthcare</a> - <a href="/senior-care-market-trends">Senior Care &amp; Assisted Living Market Trends</a> - <a href="/wearable-technology-healthcare-medical-devices">Smart Medical Devices: Wearable Tech in Healthcare</a> - <a href="/artificial-intelligence-healthcare">AI in Healthcare</a> - <a href="/remote-patient-monitoring-industry-explained">Remote Patient Monitoring Industry: Devices &amp; Market Trends</a> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/georgetown-professor-reveals-people-wrong-mlk-martin-luther-king-jr-race-black-radical-racism-2017-5">A Georgetown professor explains how Martin Luther King Jr. 'has been severely whitewashed'</a></h3>

Photos and videos show officials in hazmat suits spraying passengers with mist as they arrive in Indonesia amid coronavirus scare

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Indonesia relaunches multiple entry visa that was deactivated during the pandemic

IANS

Indonesia is finally emerging from its summer of death. But as the country looks to reopen, 3 of the problems that created its pandemic crisis still loom large.

Matthew Loh

Photos and videos show officials in hazmat suits spraying passengers with mist as they arrive in Indonesia amid coronavirus scare

Connor Perrett,Connor Perrett

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