World: With the end of the holy month of Ramadan nearing, Indonesia began imposing a ban on domestic travel. The government announced the restriction on Thursday in order to prevent spread of infection of the virus during the Eid-Ul-Fitr celebrations, when millions normally travel to commemorate the festival.
Police officers were deployed across the capital city of Jakarta on Thursday to check documents and prevent travellers without special permission from leaving the city. They were enforcing a ban on travel by air, land, sea, and rail announced in April which is due to be in place between May 6-17.
Indonesia accounting for the world’s largest Muslim community witness ‘mudik’ or return home visits by its citizens to visit their families for the celebrations.
The senior health officials have expressed concern about the emergence of new and more virulent coronavirus mutations across Indonesia, including two cases this week of the B.1.617 variant, which was first identified in India late last year and is ravaging the country.
Despite the risk many try to skirt the rules said police officials on Twitter, after several individuals were caught trying to leave the capital in a cargo truck.
“I will still try to return home because this has become a tradition even though we have not gone home for two years already,” said 44-year-old Basuki Riyanto, who was contemplating how to get to Central Java province on Thursday.
The Muslim majority nation has reported total of 1,691,658 cases if the virus and 46,349 deaths. The health minister, earlier this week reported two cases of the Indian variant in Jakarta. The UK also reported detection of 13 cases of the B.117 variant in the past few days.