Omicron Enters RI, How Is The Chronology Until The Ministry Of Health Successfully Detects This Variant?

Illustration of examination in the Lab (Photo by CDC on Unsplash)

JAKARTA - The bad news has finally arrived. The Omicron variant found in South Africa also arrived in Indonesia and infected one of the cleaning staff at the Wisma Atlet.

This news was conveyed directly by the Minister of Health Budi Gunadi Sadikin through a virtual press conference, Thursday, December 16.

"There are 3 cleaning workers at the Wisma Atlet RSDC who tested positive for PCR, but one person confirmed positive for Omicron on December 15," Budi said in a virtual press conference, Thursday, December 16.

According to the chronology, this man was exposed to COVID-19 as of December 8. Then, the WGS sample of this janitor was sent to the Balitbangkes of the Ministry of Health on December 10, 2021, to carry out a whole-genome sequencing examination.

"On December 15, the results of the whole genome sequencing came out, one is Omicron," said Budi.

The remaining two patients were confirmed not to have been exposed to Omicron.

To further confirm the data, the results of the male sample have also been sent by the Ministry of Health to GISAID.

"And it's confirmed Omicron," he said again.

Budi said the three positive people, including one case of Omicron, had been quarantined at Wisma Atlet and had no symptoms; there is no fever, no cough, and has been tested by PCR again 3 days later and the results are negative for Covid-19.

"They have taken a second PCR, and the PCR results are all negative," said Budi.

The government also said that there were 5 probable cases of Omicron. The five people have not been confirmed by Omicron but through a series of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests with the S-gene target failure (SGTF) method, they are considered potential.

Two cases are Indonesian citizens who recently returned from the United States and the United Kingdom. They are still isolated at the Wisma Atlet. Then, foreigners from China who landed in Manado and were also quarantined in Manado.

"Once again, these five people are still probable because they have just been tested by PCR with special markers and the positive PCR samples from these five probable cases have been sent to Balitbangkes and we are running genome sequencing tests, in the next three days we can confirm whether this is true. is this Omicron or not," he said.