Residents Are Asked To Increase Awareness Of Potential New Variant Of COVID-19

UNSPLASH ILLUSTRATION

JAKARTA - Spokesperson for the COVID-19 Vaccination of the Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) Siti Nadia Tarmizi asked the public not to panic about the new variant of COVID-19, Omicron, but still increase vigilance, one of which is by obeying health protocols.

"Of course we don't need to panic, but we must continue to increase our vigilance," she said at the Community Activity Restrictions (PPKM) press conference, quoted by Antara, Wednesday, December 1.

Nadia explained that there are several efforts that can be done together to ensure this vigilance, namely ensuring the implementation of health protocols even though they have been vaccinated.

In addition, it is necessary to make case finding efforts followed by examination of variants, strengthen contact tracing of cases that appear in the form of clusters, and accelerate vaccination coverage in Indonesia.

The Ministry of Health ensures that Indonesia has the capacity of a COVID-19 variant detection system that has been formed from the national level to the regional level. This is to monitor the possibility of new variants, both imported cases and potential domestic ones.

Nadia asked all parties to be vigilant in the event of an increase in unusual cases or the emergence of large clusters. Other signs, such as an increase in cases in people who have been vaccinated or an increase in severity in COVID-19 patients.

"This can be an early marker of the risk of new variants of the COVID-19 virus," she explained.

Meanwhile, the Government Spokesperson for COVID-19, Dr. Reisa Broto Asmoro said the Omicron variant can still be detected through PCR tests with the World Health Organization (WHO) also stating that currently handling patients is still effective against COVID-19.

However, efforts to prevent the presence of new variants of COVID-19 remain one of the things to do considering that if it has a faster transmission nature, it can potentially put a burden on health facilities.

"That is why preventing or suppressing the possibility of more mutations of this virus must be done together. How can we do it? Continue to comply with our health protocols, especially using masks and promoting COVID-19 vaccination," said Reisa.