Health Office: 38 Banda Aceh Residents Confirmed Probable Omicron

BANDA ACEH - The Banda Aceh City Health Service (Dinkes) stated that as many as 38 residents in the capital city of Aceh province were confirmed positive for the probable COVID-19 variant Omicron. To ensure patient samples were sent to the Ministry of Health's Balitbangkes in Jakarta.

"There are 38 residents of Banda Aceh who have probable Omicron from 50 positive samples taken to be tested," said Head of the Banda Aceh Health Office Lukman in Banda Aceh, Antara, Thursday, February 24.

He said the 50 positive samples for the probable Omicron test were taken from the COVID-19 case at the Syiah Kuala University (USK) Banda Aceh at random, either students or other elements, and the result was 38 people were detected as probable.

"In Banda Aceh there is no Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) test, so to confirm the Omicron variant, it must be sent to Jakarta," he said.

Previously, the Aceh Health Research and Development Center (Balitbangkes) also detected as many as 60 Acehnese confirmed positive for the probable COVID-19 Omicron variant.

To find out the probable Omicron, Balitbangkes Aceh itself uses the S-Gene Target Failure (SGTF), then only sends it to the national reference laboratory in Jakarta.

Lukman also said that the COVID-19 case in Banda Aceh had increased in recent times.

Based on the latest report received on Wednesday (23/2), there were 38 additional positive cases of COVID-19, then 39 people were declared cured.

Then, currently there are 230 Banda Aceh residents who are undergoing self-isolation, and three elderly people with comorbidities are being treated intensively in hospital.

"Indeed, there has been an increase in COVID-19 cases in Banda Aceh in recent times, therefore we hope that the public will always be disciplined in health protocols, so that we can prevent the spread of this virus together," said Lukman.