01 July 2009

Masks, no blood tests for Bali visitors

DENPASAR - Health officials in Indonesia have backtracked on plans announced last week to give all international travellers flying into Bali a mandatory blood test for the swine flu virus upon landing, saying it would be ââ¬Åâœimpossibleââ¬~ to carry out testing at the airport. ââ¬~¨

Instead, Indonesia is planning to ask all people arriving from swine flu-affected countries to wear face masks for at least three days, the health minister said.

The Jakarta Globe, which ran the original story about the blood tests, reported that Chandra Yoga Aditama, the health ministryââ¬â¢s director general for communicable diseases, said there were no plans to conduct mandatory blood tests on international arrivals at Ngurah Rai International Airport.

On Friday, the head of the airportââ¬â¢s health office said equipment for the tests was being installed there.

ââ¬~¨Ã¢â¬~¨Ã¢â¬ÅâœI guarantee 100 percent that there are no blood tests for visitors in the airport, and there is no policy at the moment stating that all international visitors will be required to take that test,ââ¬~ Chandra said, adding that the airport health office was not equipped to carry out blood tests for H1N1.

ââ¬ÅâœThat would need to be performed in larger laboratories and would require a lot of money.ââ¬~ ââ¬~¨

Bali Update (www.balidiscovery.com) has reported that the airport authorities will single out planes from countries confirmed to be infected with the H1N1 virus for special treatment.

Upon landing at Bali's airport planes will be taken to a remote aircraft parking area where the plane and its passengers will be sprayed with disinfectant.

Passengers will then be disembarked and subjected to thermal scanners.

The presence of the H1N1 virus was confirmed in Indonesia only last week and so far four of the eight known cases have been foreigners.

Indonesiaââ¬â¢s health minister, Siti Fadilah Supari, told AFP "Visitors from infected countries should wear masks. It's a precautionary measure we're taking to avoid human-to-human transmission of the virus

"We'll give them the masks when they arrive at the airports and tell them to wear them for three days."

But the minister said the government had no intention of enforcing the precaution, which could do serious damage to the country's tourism industry.

"There'll be no penalty if people don't wear them. You can't expect people to wear masks when they're swimming," Supari said, adding the masks would be handed out to visitors as soon as possible depending on funding.

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• Michael Jackson will Live on in Bali
  
  

  The idea that Travellers from Swine Flu affected regions have to wear a face mask could be traated as a Balinese memorial for the late King of Pop. Aussie travellers may need to moon walk as they leave the arrivals terminal of Denpassar Airport.

  By David Beirman, Thursday, July 2, 2009