A man from the Netherlands may have been the first confirmed coronavirus patient in Indonesia when he fell ill there in January. He was treated in three hospitals while he was ill in East Java in January 2020.[6][7] Indonesia banned all flights from and to mainland China starting on 5 February. The government also stopped giving free visas and visas on arrival for Chinese nationals. Those who lived or had stayed in mainland China in the previous 14 days were barred from entering or transiting through Indonesia. Indonesians were discouraged from travelling to China.[8]
The Ministry of Health ordered the installation of thermal scanners for at least 135 airport gates and port docks,[9][10] and announced that provisioning over 100 hospitals with isolation rooms (to WHO-recommended standards) would begin.[11] On 2 March 2020, President Joko Widodo confirmed the first two cases of COVID-19 in the country in a televised statement.[12] According to the Minister of Health Terawan Agus Putranto, the patients contracted the virus from an infected Japanese person in Depok who later tested positive in Malaysia. Both Indonesian patients were subsequently hospitalized at Sulianti Saroso Infection Center Hospital, North Jakarta. Starting on 4 March, Jakarta MRT also began scanning the temperature of passengers entering the stations and denying access to those with symptoms of high fever.[13]
Starting on 8 March, travel restrictions expanded to include Daejeon and Gyeongsangbuk-do in South Korea, Lombardy, Veneto and Emilia-Romagna regions of Italy, and Tehran and Qom in Iran. Visitors with travel history within those countries but outside of the aforementioned regions had to provide a valid health certificate during check-in for all transportation into Indonesia.[14] Despite the restriction on travellers from South Korea, Indonesia still allowed flights from South Korea.[15]
The first confirmed death from coronavirus in the country occurred on 11 March 2020.[16] However, a Telkom employee who had died on 3 March tested positive for COVID-19 on 14 March; he had infected his wife and child.[17][18]
On 13 March, the government designated 132 treatment facilities across Indonesia.[19]
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