Last updated on May 13th, 2021 at 06:09 am
Eid homecoming (mudik) trips is very common for Indonesian citizens after spending one month Ramadhan fasting. They usually get long public holiday to spend time with the family. However, due to coronavirus (COVID-19) in the emergency period, Transportation Ministry is mulling over the policy to ban the people from going on mudik to curb the spread of the virus.
“We all know that the mass gathering during mudik is highly avoided in the midst of the pandemic outbreak like today. We’re considering if mudik will be banned,” said the ministry’s spokesperson Adita Irawati in a live conference on Friday, March 20.
This option is actually quite risky, according to her, as the surge of private vehicles will be high. The public will probably choose to not using mass transportations for mudik. Therefore, Adita said Transportation Minister ad interim Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan and his team are currently discussing the matter.
Homecoming trafic is expected by the ministry to keep open by providing the option, but they also have to do tight monitoring at public transport areas.
Once further discussions and tests with various samples and methods are done, the government and related ministries will later announce the final decison and disseminate it to the public.
Previously, former Vice President Jusuf Kalla or JK has advised the government to ban the Eid homecoming in this year’s period.
Meanwhile, the emergency status of Covid-19 in Indonesia has been extended. The National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) has previously increased the emergency status until May 29. The Eid al-Fitr days itself are predicted to fall on May 23-24.
