Banda Aceh, Aceh (ANTARA) – Aceh police have tightened several COVID-19 checkpoints to prevent ineligible travelers from entering Banda Aceh as the city remains categorized as a red zone or an area with very high risk of infection.
Some 100 vehicles had been stopped at the checkpoints since the public activity restrictions (PPKM) began on Friday, Head of the Aceh police headquarters’ Operations Bureau Sen.Coms.Agus Sarjito said.
The police officers then asked drivers, passengers, and motorcyclists to show their valid COVID-19 vaccination and rapid antigen test result certificates at the COVID-19 checkpoints.
Twenty motorcyclists failed to show the required notifications so that the cops requested them to turn around, Sarjito said in a statement that ANTARA quoted in Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh Province, on Sunday.
He said tightening preventive measures at the COVID-19 checkpoints, including the one at the Lambaro Intersection Roundabout area in Aceh Besar District, was vital to halt COVID-19 spread in Banda Aceh.
In early July, the Indonesian Medical Association (IDI)-Aceh Chapter had highlighted the importance of consistently complying with health protocols and staying alert for COVID-19 transmission among family clusters.
IDI-Aceh Chapter Chairman Safrizal Rahman argued that family clusters have become the primary engine of COVID-19 transmission in Indonesia.
He, therefore, asked Acehnese families to join efforts to halt the growth of family clusters in communities and protect themselves from contracting or transmitting the virus by avoiding nonessential travel.
In the midst of COVID-19 surge in Banda Aceh, the Aceh Tsunami Museum is closed.
Head of the Aceh Tsunami Museum Hafnidar said last June that the museum, which preserves the legacies of past tsunamis, would only be reopened when Aceh is declared a “safe zone”.
Prior to the closure, the Aceh Tsunami Museum had frequently been visited by local residents and travelers from outside Aceh, including those from Medan, North Sumatra.
The COVID-19 pandemic initially hit the Chinese city of Wuhan in 2019 and subsequently spread across the globe, including to countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
The Indonesian government announced the country’s first confirmed cases on March 2, 2020.
Since then, the central and regional governments have striven incessantly to flatten the nation’s coronavirus curve by applying healthcare protocols and public activity restrictions.
Source: Antara News