Vice President Reminds Omicron Local Transmission To Increase Significantly

JAKARTA - Vice President Ma'ruf Amin reminded that the spread of COVID-19 cases of the Omicron variant through transmission between residents in an area or local transmission has increased significantly.

"Observing developments in the last week, there has been a significant increase in positive confirmed cases of COVID-19 with an increase in cases of local transmission", said the Vice President in a statement from the Press, Media and Information Bureau (BPMI) of the Vice President's Secretariat, quoted by Antara on Monday, January 24.

The vice president asked all parties to increase vigilance regarding the local transmission of Omicron, even though the symptoms caused by the virus are relatively mild.

The vice president also asked for increased testing, tracking, and treatment for the community to reduce the number of COVID-19 transmissions.

"Do an increase in the number of tests, tracing, considering that those exposed to this variant are mostly asymptomatic people and also people with comorbid, mild illness. This has great potential to trigger continuous transmission in the community", he explained.

In addition, the Vice President appealed to all parties to support the acceleration of COVID-19 vaccination, including the provision of booster vaccines to the public.

The vice president chaired a limited meeting related to the evaluation of the implementation of restrictions on community activities (PPKM) through a video conference from the official residence of the Indonesian vice president, Jakarta, Monday.

In the meeting, it was decided to extend the PPKM in Java and Bali until January 31, although the increase in cases in recent times is still under control.

The Java and Bali PPKM coordinator as well as the Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment, Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, said the number of confirmed and active daily cases was still more than 90 percent or lower than the peak of transmission cases of the Delta variant.

"However, once again, we don't need to be comfortable with this. However, we still have to be disciplined. Our keyword is discipline", Luhut said in an online press statement after the meeting in Jakarta, Monday.