Minister Of Health Budi Gunadi: Omicron Variant Positivity Rate Of Overseas Travel Arrival Reaches 13 Percent

JAKARTA - Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said the increase in positive cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 had increased. Transmission of the variant is mostly found from foreign travelers arriving in Indonesia.

"So indeed we have observed an increase in the number of Omicron cases, especially from overseas arrivals. For information, the positivity rate for foreign arrivals is 13 percent," Budi said in a press conference broadcast on the Presidential Secretariat's YouTube, Monday, January 10.

Meanwhile, the positivity rate of the Omicron variant through local transmission, said Budi, did not reach 1 percent or less.

"The local transmission positivity rate is 0.2 percent," said the former Deputy Minister of SOEs.

"So the positivity rate for arrivals from abroad is 65 times higher than the positivity rate for local transmissions," Budi added.

With this condition, the Minister of Health revealed that the positive cases of the Omicron variant in the country actually came from Indonesian citizens who had just arrived in Indonesia. Moreover, currently, a number of countries continue to experience an increase in positive cases due to this variant.

Budi noted that currently the country with the highest number of positive cases due to the Omicron variant is Saudi Arabia. Then, in second place is Turkey, the United States.

"And fourth is the United Arab Emirates," he explained.

Seeing these conditions, the government then reminded the public to refrain from traveling abroad. This was conveyed by the Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment (Marinves) Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan on the same occasion.

"If possible, don't go abroad in the next two or three weeks. So that it will subside there first so you don't have to come here with illness," he said.

"It makes our job. Even though the Minister of Health said it is not dangerous, but if you get hit by a lot of danger too. So I beg you to refrain from going abroad and if you come abroad, obey health protocols, you must go into quarantine, don't ask for dispensation left and right ," added Luhut.

Luhut emphasized that quarantine for travelers from abroad was mandatory. In fact, Luhut and several other ministers who have just returned from abroad also run it.

"Me, Pak Budi (Minister of Health Budi Gunadi Sadikin, Pak Airlangga (Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hartarto) we are also in quarantine, we carry out that," he concluded.