A Number Of Wisma Athletes Tower Lockdown Prevents The Spread Of Omicron Variants

JAKARTA - The government decided to lock down a number of towers at Wisma Atlet after the discovery of a janitor who was exposed to the Omicron variant of COVID-19.

Spokesperson for the Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment (Menko Marves) Jodi Mahardi said the step was taken to prevent the spread of the Omicron variant in the community.

"The government is currently taking mitigation measures by locking or locking several athletes' guesthouse towers so that this variant does not spread widely," said Jodi in a written statement, Thursday, December 16.

Not only that, Jodi said, the government is working to intensify whole genome sequencing in the country. The goal is that the spread of the new variant can be detected and anticipated.

"The government will also carry out strict genome sequencing spread throughout Indonesia," he said.

Jodi said all these decisions were taken when Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan chaired a coordination meeting regarding the discovery of the first Omicron variant in Indonesia on Thursday morning. This coordination meeting was held with a number of related parties dealing with the spread of COVID-19 in Indonesia.

"The Coordinating Minister said that from the start he was quite careful with this considering that Indonesia is such a large country and the potential for Omicron's entry is also very large," he said.

Previously reported, Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin announced the first case of the Omicron variant. Was a cleaning officer at Wisma Atlet who tested positive for COVID-19 on December 8, 2021.

Initially, there were three people who were tested. However, two of them were not confirmed to have COVID-19 Omicron and only the officer was exposed.

Currently, the three people have been quarantined at Wisma Atlet and are not experiencing any symptoms despite testing positive for COVID-19. Furthermore, the second PCR test that they had done also showed negative results.