The Eijkman Confirms Two Cases In Jambi Are Not Delta Plus But Local Variant B1466.2

JAKARTA - The Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology has confirmed that the two COVID-19 cases reported in Jambi are not Delta Plus variants.

"It turns out that in Jambi it must be corrected, the entry is not Delta Plus, but the group is the local Indonesian variant B1466.2", said Head of Eijkman Prof Amin Subandrio, quoted by Antara, Sunday, August 1.

Government research institutes engaged in molecular biology and medical biotechnology initially reported that there were two confirmed Delta Plus variants in Jambi and the same case in Mamuju.

"Today there is a change based on a deeper molecular study, it turns out that there is only one Delta Plus, namely the one in Mamuju", he said.

Amin said the Delta Plus variant is a derivative of the Delta variant which undergoes an additional mutation in which the amino acid leucine in the protein portion is replaced with Asparagine (N).

However, when confirmed whether the Delta plus variant has more worrying characteristics than Delta? Amin said that his party did not have strong enough evidence to date. "Because the number of isolates is still small", he said.

Amin added that the Delta variant is based on observations of cases in the country that do not yet have scientific data that can cause more severe symptoms.

"We see that not all of those infected with the Delta variant are heavy and not all of the current severe patients are Delta. So there is no strong evidence support for Delta's relationship with increased morbidity and mortality in Indonesia", he said.