The Indonesian government on December 20 removed the entry ban for travellers from China's Hong Kong ahead of year-end holidays while putting the UK, Norway and Denmark into the travel ban list due to concerns related to Omicron variant in the three countries.

Visitors at an airport of Indonesia (Photo: AFP/VNA)

With the new decision, Indonesia now has a total of 13 countries on its travel ban list. The other ten are South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Mozambique, Eswatini, Malawi, Angola and Zambia.

Speaking at a press conference on the same day, Coordinating Minister for Maritime and Investment Affairs Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan urged people to limit trips abroad if not absolutely necessary.

As of December 20, Indonesia has confirmed three Omicron variant cases. The government has decided to extend the restrictions on public activities, locally known as PPKM, outside Java and Bali from December 17 to January 3, 2022.

Indonesia so far documented 4,260,677 COVID-19 infections, including 144,013 deaths.

Meanwhile, Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen on December 20 announced the end of the ‘February 20 community event’, which saw the first widespread outbreak of COVID-19 in the Southeast Asian nation.

In his voice message, PM Hun Sen highlighted that the daily number of infections has dropped to around 10.

The country has so far counted more than 120,000 infections, and over 3,000 deaths related to COVID-19.

The same day, the Health Ministry of Laos confirmed additional 824 COVID-19 cases and one more death, lifting the total infection and fatality to 99,396 and 274, respectively.

The ministry stated that the number of new cases in the country on December 20 had dropped to the 3-digit level after many days it recorded the number of infections at the 4-digit level.

Source: VNA