Indonesia Highlights: Indonesia to Apply No Exceptions in Eid al-Fitr Holiday Travel Ban | Indonesia Quarantines Foreign Sailors Suspected of Carrying Covid-19 Variant From India | Indonesia: Locals

The 13 sailors are among the 20 crewmen of a ship which sailed to Cilacap from India last April.

“Boarding officers from Cilacap’s Health Services took genome samples from three of the sailors at Cilacap Regional Hospital on April 28, where they have been self-isolating in rooms separate from the other patients,” said Cilacap Health Service chief Dr. Pramesti Griana Dewi.

Pramesti declined to confirm if the patients, who hailed from the Philippines, tested positive for the B.1.6.1.7 strain. But she confirmed that some contact with workers at Cilacap’s Tanjung Intan port did occur.

“The procedure to determine if [the sailors] contracted the B.1.6.1.7 strain was carried out three days after the vessel arrived at Cilacap’s [Tanjung Intan] port. It will then be sent to the offices of the Ministry of Health in Jakarta.”

Prior to its arrival at Cilacap’s Tanjung Intan harbor on April 25, the cargo ship was known to leave Indian waters on April 14.

Central Java’s governor, Ganjar Pranowo, also weighed in on the ship’s presence in Cilacap. “I urge port authorities [in Cilacap and elsewhere in Indonesia]] to know the origins of the ships that dock and use their ports,” he said.

“If they came from countries that have dangerous [Covid-19] outbreaks, do not let them dock and use the port facilities of cities in Central Java.” He also called for calm from the public.

Source:

https://go.kompas.com/read/2021/05/08/071833974/indonesia-quarantines-foreign-sailors-suspected-of-carrying-covid-19-variant-from?page=all#page2. 

Indonesia: Locals warned as Mount Sinabung erupts

Indonesia's Mount Sinabung erupted Friday, spewing thick volcanic ash almost 3 kilometers (more than 1.5 miles) into the sky, the country's geological agency said.

The eruption lasted more than six minutes as ash billowed above the volcano, but there were no immediate reports of casualties, the agency reported. Residents have been advised to stay 5 kilometers from the crater and have also been warned of possible avalanches of volcanic debris.

Sinabung has become increasingly active of late, with at least 15 smaller eruptions recorded in the past week. "The potential for eruption is still high. There will be more eruption in the near future," said Armen Putra, an official at the Sinabung monitoring post.

Mount Sinabung is located on the seismically active zone known as the "Ring of Fire" — an arc of volcanoes and fault lines encircling the Pacific Ocean. Sinabung has been erupting intermittently for years, with some 30,000 people displaced as a result.

Indonesia has 127 active volcanoes — more than any other country in the world — and in 2016, nine villagers were killed after Sinabung erupted.

Source:

https://go.kompas.com/read/2021/05/08/045002374/indonesia-locals-warned-as-mount-sinabung-erupts. n