Indonesia bans all air or sea routes until June to curb the spread of the new coronavirus, the government said on Thursday.
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The ban will take effect on Friday, the first day of Ramadan, and will last until June 1. It was announced the day after the travel ban on Eid al-Fitr, the great holiday marking the end of Ramadan, which customarily sees millions of people traveling across the country. This prohibition does not apply to the transport of goods, diplomatic relations or urgent journeys, said the Indonesian authorities, as well as the repatriation of Indonesian citizens stranded abroad or the return of foreigners legally residing in the country. .
The two largest airlines, Garuda and Lion Air, have already greatly reduced the number of their flights, following the disappearance of tourism. But the ban on boat trips will prevent millions of people from moving, in a country made up of an archipelago of some 17,000 islands where ferries are a usual mode of transport.
Indonesia currently has 7,775 confirmed cases of COVID-19 virus and 647 dead, although the true toll could be much higher, in a country where tests are almost non-existent.
