Virus Variant AY.42 Worrying In The UK, The Indonesian Government Continues To Monitor

JAKARTA - Health Minister, Budi Gunadi Sadikin, said the government continues to monitor the COVID-19 situation in various countries, including the UK. Moreover, in the last few months, there has been a new virus variant, AY.42, whose spread has worried the British government.

"We see that in the UK there is one potentially worrying variant, namely AY.42", Budi said in a press conference broadcast on the Presidential Secretariat's YouTube, Monday, October 25.

Although this variant has not entered the country until now, AY.42 must be watched out for. The reason is that this variant is a derivative of the Delta variant which previously caused an increase in positive cases in Indonesia.

"This variant is a derivative of the Delta variant and has significantly increased confirmed cases in the UK for a long time from July to October this year and continues to increase", he said.

Minister of Health Budi said President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) had asked all parties to anticipate the surge in the COVID-19 wave, especially at the moment of Christmas and New Year.

"Because there are many important events next year, such as the G20, which rely heavily on the trust of world leaders on how Indonesia can handle conditions in Naru", said the former Deputy Minister of SOEs.

"If there is a spike, it will greatly disrupt their presence and the success of the event", concluded Budi.