The Spike In Cases In Kudus Is A Benchmark For The Emergence Of New Variants

JAKARTA - Deputy Minister of Health Dante Saksono Harbuwono said the rapid and massive spike in COVID-19 cases in Kudus Regency, Central Java was a benchmark for the emergence of new variants of the corona virus.

"The models of transmission that occur massively and quickly can also be one of the benchmarks showing the existence of a new variant," he said during the Thursday News Dialogue virtual event at the KPCPEN Media Center in Jakarta, reported by Antara, Thursday, June 10.

The surge in COVID-19 cases in Kudus Regency is currently almost 2,000 cases. This figure missed the local government's initial estimate of around 200 cases after Eid 1442 Hijri.

Dante said the thing to watch out for was the mutation from SARS-CoV-2 that occurred from Kudus, because it had the same characteristics as the virus mutations from India and England which spread rapidly and massively.

"There is a tendency to accelerate transmission faster, such as mutations from India and England, which are faster to provide a more dramatic level of reasoning compared to normal mutants," he said.

He said that currently there are 17 laboratories throughout Indonesia that are capable of conducting genome sequencing examinations to detect these new variants.

Efforts that are currently being made by the government, said Dante, are random sample tests with special criteria, then the data is compiled and analyzed.

"Each region sends five samples every week," he said.

He added that so far there have been 65 cases of mutations and new variants of SARS-CoV-2 detected in Indonesia based on the results of examinations by 17 laboratories.

The genome samples analyzed were not only from patients under 30 years of age, but all tested cases including those over 30 years of age.

"But indeed the speed of this whole genome sequencing (WGS) test is limited, it takes some time to technically maximize the test and the test takes one to two weeks so that a total of about 2,000 (WGS) we tested randomly," he said.