Ministry Of Health Says First Omicron Local Transmission Case Has No Symptoms, Patient Isolated At RSPI

JAKARTA - Spokesperson from the Ministry of Health, Siti Nadia Tarmizi said that patients who contracted the Omicron variant of COVID-19 from local transmission did not have symptoms.

"The clinical condition of the person concerned is asymptomatic. So, we haven't found any symptoms at all until today," Nadia said in a virtual press conference, Tuesday, December 28.

Nadia explained that the first case of local transmission of Omicron was found in a 37-year-old man who had no foreign travel. Thus, currently there are 47 cases of Omicron, with 46 cases being imported and 1 case being local transmission.

It is known that the patient who was exposed to local transmission Omicron lives in Medan and goes to Jakarta once a month. From existing data, this man and his wife arrived in Jakarta on December 6 last.

Then, on December 17th, they visited a restaurant in SCBD, South Jakarta, and on December 19th they tested positive for COVID-19.

"The patient and his wife did an antigen test and were declared positive because the person concerned was planning to return to Medan. Then PCR was carried out on December 20 and confirmation of omicron was obtained from the laboratory on December 26," explained Nadia.

As a follow-up, this patient is in the process of being evacuated to isolate at the Sulianti Saroso Infection Center Hospital, North Jakarta.

Nadia explained the reason this man was isolated in the hospital even though he had no symptoms. This is the first case of Omicron contracting it from local transmission and therefore needs to be closely monitored.

"So we want to make sure, to minimize the possibility of transmission that may occur. Because we know the facilities for the hospital are much better than isolation, while we study the clinical pattern of Omicron who is infected with this local transmission," said Nadia.

"In principle, infection control at the hospital will be better and the supervision will be more stringent. Therefore, we have brought the person concerned to the RSPI, no isolation or quarantine is carried out at the athlete's home," he continued.