Indonesia opens door for travelers from China's Hong Kong, bans entry from Britain, Norway, Denmark

JAKARTA, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- The Indonesian government has removed the entry ban for travelers from China's Hong Kong ahead of year-end holidays while putting Britain, Norway and Denmark into the travel ban list, citing increasing cases of the coronavirus Omicron variant in the three countries.

With the new decision, Indonesia now has a total of 13 countries on its travel ban list including South Africa, Bostwana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Mozambique, Eswatini, Malawi, Angola and Zambia.

Coordinating Minister for Maritime and Investment Affairs Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan told a press conference on Monday that the government could add more countries to the list depending on the development of the situation in Indonesia.

"We keep watching the situation and we do the weekly evaluation. We still have no idea about the details of the Omicron variant, although many researchers have found that it is more transmissible," Pandjaitan said.

As of Monday, the country's health ministry has confirmed three Omicron variant cases.

"We still urge that the public avoid traveling abroad if there is no essential purpose," Pandjaitan said.

The government has decided to extend the restrictions on public activities, locally known as PPKM, outside Java and Bali from Friday to Jan. 3, 2022, a senior minister said.

The measure was taken following the mechanism on the PPKM during the Christmas and New Year holidays based on the level of the pandemic assessment, Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto said at a virtual press conference in Jakarta on Monday.

Hartarto also said the number of daily cases outside Java and Bali for the last seven days has decreased by 98.9 percent with a fatality rate of 3.12 percent and a recovery rate of 96.71 percent.

The number of coronavirus cases in the country has now risen to 4,260,677, as 133 new patients were recorded in the past 24 hours, the country's COVID-19 Task Force said.

As many as 216 patients recovered from COVID-19, bringing the total number of recoveries to 4,111,835, and 11 more people died of the coronavirus in the last 24 hours, bringing the total death toll to 144,013.