JAKARTA: More than 99 percent of Indonesia’s population has developed antibodies against COVID-19, the health minister said on Monday, as tens of millions of people are expected to stream out of cities at the end of Ramadan.
Indonesia, home to the world’s largest Muslim population, has allowed the annual exodus tradition locally known as “mudik” for the first time since it was banned for two years during the pandemic.
More than 85 million Indonesians are planning to travel at the end of the Muslim holy month this year, according to a survey from the Transportation Ministry, after the government eased COVID-19 testing requirements for domestic travel and dropped quarantine rules for vaccinated foreign arrivals.
Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said a seroprevalence survey conducted ahead of Eid Al-Fitr showed 99.2 percent of Indonesians have developed antibodies against COVID-19.
“We also measured the level of antibodies. In December when we conducted the (first) sero survey, the antibodies were in the hundreds. But by March it (was) in the thousands, around 7,000 (to) 8,000,” Sadikin said during a press briefing in Jakarta, adding that higher levels of antibodies mean better resistance against the coronavirus and less risks of hospitalization and death.
“This has resulted in the government hoping that this Ramadan, this mudik, can occur smoothly without bringing any negative impact to our people.”
Millions had flouted the poorly enforced bans in the last two years, while previous public holidays in the southeast Asian country had resulted in spikes of coronavirus cases. But the public health situation has since improved, and daily cases at the national level are currently in the hundreds, compared to nearly 65,000 daily cases during the peak of the omicron wave in mid-February.
Chief Economic Minister Airlangga Hartarto, who heads Indonesia’s COVID-19 handling committee, urged Indonesians not to travel abroad during the long holiday.
“With this upcoming long holiday, citizens are advised not to travel abroad because we know the situation in other countries is not the same (as) in Indonesia so there’s potential for transmissions from abroad,” Hartarto said.
Bracing for the return of mass travel and notorious road congestion, President Joko Widodo said Indonesians should start hitting the roads early.
“I am calling on the public to go on mudik earlier … don’t forget to obey health protocols, especially to use masks, wash hands, and keep social distance,” Widodo said.
As the country enjoyed a gradual return to normalcy in the last month, more than 162 million Indonesians, over half of the country’s 270-million population, have now been fully vaccinated.
Umi Mubarotun, who lives and works in the outskirts of the capital Jakarta, said she’s planning to return to her hometown in West Java for Eid Al-Fitr next month after skipping mudik last year.
“The government is already allowing mudik this year,” Mubarotun told Arab News.
“I’m not worried because I’m already vaccinated.”
