Kudus Alert, India's COVID-19 Variant Increases To 62 Cases

JAKARTA - The government of Kudus Regency, Central Java recorded the finding of the Indian COVID-19 variant or delta increased to 62 cases from the previous 28 cases.

This was known after 34 samples of the genome of corona patients were examined in the laboratory and were declared delta variants.

"All 34 samples were declared exposed to the delta variant virus", said the Regent of Kudus Hartopo in Kudus, as reported by Antara, Friday, June 18.

He revealed that the initial sample of 28 samples was taken from the Loekmono Hadi Kudus Regional General Hospital. Then the Kudus District Health Office took 34 more samples to be tested in the Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) laboratory on May 20, 2021.

However, he said, the Kudus Regency Government had not received complete data from the 34 COVID-19 specimens tested at the WGS laboratory.

"If there is a report, we can track the patient, where he has been and contact with anyone", he said.

He admitted that he was surprised why there was a delta variant in Kudus, considering it was far from the port and airport. Have any Kudus residents had contact with their relatives who had just returned from India or had they traveled to several countries?

"Kudus is considered a 'suspect' and is still a question mark. Actually, who is the suspect first, is it indeed Kudus who jumped earlier, so that the test is taken first, while other areas have not or what?", he said.

Even so, he said, there was no need to question it, because the main focus at this time was to make efforts to handle it more optimally so that COVID-19 cases could be suppressed.