Brunei on Monday suspended all entry from Indonesia due to their COVID-19 situation and rising imported cases from the country.
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According to Brunei's Prime Minister's Office (PMO), following the ongoing situation of COVID-19 in Indonesia, approvals on the entry for foreign nationals departing from or through Indonesia are temporarily suspended with immediate effect until further notice, which applies to entry travels of all foreign nationals departing from or through any airport in Indonesia (direct flight) or traveling from Indonesia to Brunei via transit at any other airport.
The PMO also said that in addition, the temporary suspension also applies to foreign nationals who have been granted pre-approvals to enter Brunei from Indonesia.
Indonesia on Monday recorded 34,257 newly-confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 1,338 deaths in the past 24 hours, the country's Health Ministry said.
After recording eight imported cases from Indonesia on Sunday, Brunei reported another 14 newly confirmed COVID-19 cases from Indonesia on Monday, bringing the national tally to 305.
According to Brunei's Ministry of Health, the new cases are all Indonesian citizens arriving from Indonesia via Singapore on July 12, 2021. Three of the 14 cases have signs of infection, including flu and fever before or after their arrival, while the other 11 cases show no signs of infection.
Investigation and contact tracing have confirmed no close contacts for these cases. All of the patients were detected when they were undergoing their quarantine in Brunei.
The new cases are being treated and monitored at the National Isolation Center with 27 other active patients, who are all in a stable condition.
With the detection of the new cases, a total of 164 imported cases have been confirmed since the last local infection case on May 6, 2020. Brunei has recorded 439 days without local COVID-19 infection cases.
There have been a total of 261 recovered patients and three deaths reported from COVID-19 so far in the country.
The health ministry also said that as of July 18, 110,814 individuals had received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, accounting for about 24.4 percent of Brunei's total population. ■