Gov’t Sends Wuhan Evacuees Home

Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture Muhadjir Effendy on press release. (Photo by: Coordinating Ministry for Human Development and Culture PR).

The Indonesian Government has ensured that the process of returning 238 evacuees from Natuna Island after they underwent a quarantine process for 14 days to their respective homes will go smoothly.

The Government also ensured that all of them are in good health.

“We will accompany them,” Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture Muhadjir Effendy said in Natuna, Saturday (15/2).

The evacuees boarded two Boeing planes and a Hercules aircraft of the Indonesian Air Force in three departures from the Raden Sadjad Airport in Natuna to Halim Perdanakusuma Airport in East Jakarta.

The Minister expressed hopes that families and the communities can accept them back without any worries. “God willing, they really are healthy,” he added.

The Government, Muhadjir added, will still consider whether the evacuated students will return to Wuhan after the coronavirus outbreak ends or continue their studies in Indonesia with a credit transfer system.

“We will further discuss it after this is over,” he said.

In the meantime, Head of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) Doni Monardo guaranteed that the evacuees will return to their hometowns safely. The repatriation costs are all borne by the BNPB, he added.

“We have also provided evacuees with a transport allowance of Rp1 million per person,” Doni said.

For the record, Ministry of Health has also issued a statement letter for the evacuees stating that they are free from COVID-19 and instructed the local health offices to continue to disseminate to the public about the virus and monitor the evacuees’ health condition.

The Indonesian Government on February 2 evacuated 243 people—including 237 Indonesian nationals, a foreigner and five embassy staffers—from Wuhan as well as other cities in the central Chinese province of Hubei following the outbreak of the novel coronavirus.

The evacuees, the evacuation team and all support staff were airlifted to Hang Nadim airport on the island of Batam and were then immediately transported to Natuna Island—located 565 kilometers to the northeast of Batam—for quarantining.

The number of cases of the novel coronavirus soared to over 69,000 worldwide, with the global death toll reaching 1,669. (Humas Kemenko PMK/EN)

Translated by: Galuh Wicaksono
Reviewed by: Muhammad Ersan Pamungkas