Man with coronavirus disguises himself as wife on Indonesian flight

TERNATE, Indonesia (AP) – An Indonesian man with coronavirus boarded a domestic flight disguised as his wife, wearing a niqab covering his face and carrying fake ID and a negative PCR test result.

But the cover didn’t last long.

Police said a flight attendant on a Citilink plane traveling from Jakarta to Ternate in the North Moluccas province noticed on Sunday that the man had changed clothes in the toilet.

“He bought the plane ticket in his wife’s name and brought the ID card, the PCR test result and the vaccination card in his wife’s name. All the documents are in his wife’s name, ”Ternate Police Chief Aditya Laksimada said after arresting the man on the landing. He was only identified by his initials.

Police took him away for a COVID-19 test, which came back positive.

The man is currently self-isolating at home and police say the investigation will continue.

Indonesia is in the grip of the worst coronavirus wave in Asia with 33,772 new confirmed cases and 1,383 deaths in the past 24 hours. The total number of reported cases is 2.9 million with 77,583 deaths.

Restrictions on non-essential travel, including a mandatory negative coronavirus test, and public gatherings were tightened during the Eid al-Adha holiday this week.