COVID-19 positive man from Indonesia boards flight disguised as wife; gets arrested

An Indonesian man with novel coronavirus boarded a domestic flight disguised as his wife. Not to be recognised by officials at the airport, he wore a niqab covering his face and carried fake IDs along with a negative PCR test result. Despite disguising himself, the cover could not last too long as police revealed that a flight attendant from a Citilink plane, who was traveling from Jakarta to Ternate in North Maluku province, noticed the man changing his clothes in the washroom on 18 July. “He bought the plane ticket with his wife’s name and brought the identity card, the PCR test result, and the vaccination card with his wife’s name,” Ternate police chief Aditya Laksimada said. After arresting the man upon landing, the police chief informed him that all documents were under his wife’s name. Meanwhile, the man was only identified by his initials. After being arrested, the police took the man and got a COVID-19 test done which later revealed that he was positive. Currently, the man is self-isolating at his residence while police stated that the investigation will continue in this case. With the latest updates, Indonesia reports a severe rise in cases across Asia. In the last 24 hours, 33,772 new confirmed cases and 1,383 deaths have been reported. So far, a total number of 2.9 million cases with 77,583 fatalities have been registered. Due to the rise in cases, strict restrictions on non-essential travel have been implemented. If in any case travel is necessary, then the individual would need a mandatory negative COVID-19 test report. Also, for the extended holiday over Eid al-Adha this week, public gatherings and any social meetings have been toughened.