Tracing Variants Of COVID AY.4.2, West Kalimantan Health Office Routinely Sends Patient Samples To The Ministry Of Health

KALBAR - The Health Office of West Kalimantan (Kalbar) has sent samples of COVID-19 to the Balitbangkes of the Ministry of Health in Jakarta to find out whether the province already has a variant of the AY.4.2 virus.

"The last sample was sent to the Ministry of Health's Balitbangkes on October 11, 2021 and as many as 34 samples. As of now, we don't have any, we are still waiting for the results," explained the Head of West Kalimantan Health Office, Dr. Harrison, in Pontianak, as quoted by Antara, Saturday, November 13.

Harrison said, until now West Kalimantan is still free from the new COVID-19 variant. However, his party is still waiting for a sample examination to strengthen it medically.

The AY.4.2 virus is one of the newer variants that has caused a spike in cases in the UK. Every month, continued Harrison, his party sends approximately 30 samples to the Ministry of Health.

The samples sent were sourced from positive cases in the community with a CT (Cycle Threshold) below 30. Including positive cases of Indonesian migrant workers (PMI) who entered from the West Kalimantan border route.

He added that the routine delivery is to see the virus findings which are variants of concern and variants under investigation.

"The samples sent were taken randomly. Both from the community with positive cases with CT below 30 and PMI positive cases. PMI did not see CT," he said.

Although it has not been found, Harrison ensured that efforts to guard the entrance to West Kalimantan continue to be carried out. Efforts to tighten the entrance to West Kalimantan are strengthened by Governor's Letter No. 196 of 2021 concerning the sixth amendment to Pergub 110 of 2020.

"In the letter, it is stated that domestic travelers who will enter West Kalimantan, both through air, land and sea transportation modes, must have a negative PCR," he said.

Likewise, the Border Task Force applies a decree from the National Task Force letter. PMIs who have been vaccinated twice can then enter, but must have a negative PCR result. After that, at the West Kalimantan border, a PCR test was carried out and they had to be quarantined for three days.

"If they have just vaccinated, one condition is that they must be PCR negative and must be quarantined for five days," he said.

In order to prevent the virus from entering West Kalimantan, his party continues to appeal to the public to continue implementing health procedures wherever they are.

"We must not slack off, what's more, it is predicted that we will enter the third wave of COVID-19, so the implementation of Prokes must continue," said Harisson.