Coronavirus: Indonesia relaxes mask mandates, scraps tests for travellers as it learns to ‘live with the virus’

Masks must still be worn indoors and on public transport. Authorities recommend the elderly and those with health conditions continue to use them

Fully vaccinated travellers will no longer need Covid tests to enter Indonesia. In March, the country lifted quarantine requirements for overseas visitors

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Tourists walk at a beach in Bali, Indonesia. Indonesia will no longer require a negative pre-departure test for foreign and domestic travellers. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 8:47am, 18 May 2022

Indonesia will drop requirements for people to mask up outdoors and for vaccinated travellers to show negative pre-departure tests, officials said on Tuesday, as Covid-19 infections decline in the Southeast Asian country.

“When people are doing outdoor activities, or in open areas that are not crowded with people, then they are allowed not to wear masks,” President Joko Widodo said in a televised address.

But masks must still be worn indoors and on public transport, he said, also recommending the elderly and those with underlying health conditions or coughs continue to use them as well.

The new mask rules take effect on Wednesday.

People wear protective masks walk through a platform of a railway station during the pandemic, in Jakarta, Indonesia. Indonesia announced it will drop requirements for people to mask up outdoors. Photo: Reuters

Indonesia will also no longer require a negative pre-departure test for foreign and domestic travellers, Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin told a news conference.