The Minister of Health affirms that the Covid-19 vaccination certificate cannot be a condition to board a plane

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com – Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said that the public should take a Covid-19 test before traveling by plane or leaving the city.

He emphasized that the Covid-19 vaccine certificate cannot be used as a condition for air travel.

“You can’t (use a vaccination certificate to travel), you can’t until now,” Budi said in a working meeting with DPR Commission IX that aired on DPR RI’s YouTube channel on Monday (15 / 3/2021).

Also read: How to verify the Covid-19 vaccine certificate

Budi said that the speech about the Covid-19 vaccine certificate as a condition for traveling by plane or out of town had been broadcast at the beginning of his term as Minister of Health.

However, this speech was protested by epidemiologists because there was no guarantee that after being vaccinated you would not be able to contract the Corona virus.

“So there are still many epidemiologist friends who suggest that if you want to be conservative, you should not first, but then we can discuss this issue, if there are many who are vaccinated, it may also make sense,” he said.

Budi also said the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention relaxed health protocols if vaccines went from 30 percent to 40 percent.

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He said Indonesia could later emulate US policy.

“Later we can learn from there after we reach 30-40 percent of the population, now it is only 10 percent of our goal,” he said.