Minister Of Health Budi Gunadi Confirms Transmission Of The Omicron Variant Has Not Been Detected From Local Transmission

Ilustrasi (Ilham Amin / VOI)

JAKARTA - Minister of Health Budi Gunadi Sadikin emphasized that until now the government has not detected any transmission or transmission of the Omicron variant of the corona virus locally in Indonesia.

Although, the findings of the first Omicron variant of the COVID-19 case that was detected were the cleaning staff of the Wisma Atlet RSDC who did not have a history of traveling from abroad.

"Until now, we have not encountered community transmission, even though we continue to conduct more stringent genome sequencing sampling," Budi said in a virtual press conference, Thursday, December 16.

Then, where did the janitor get infected? Budi tries to explain this question. One positive case and five cases categorized as suspected omicron status occurred in the quarantine area.

"Indeed, this janitor does not have a history of overseas travel. But we learn from Hong Kong, it happened like that too," said Budi.

"Because he (the janitor) serves patients, he is infected as a result. Now, the infected person happens to live in the Wisma Atlet dormitory," he continued.

The government has now increased the percentage of whole genome sequencing of all confirmed cases of COVID-19. Usually only five percent will be increased to 10 percent so that if there is an Omicron it will be anticipated more quickly.

"All of our confirmed cases are WGS," said Budi.

Budi also confirmed that he would intensify the technology of antigen examination and PCR with the S-gene target failure (SGTF) method. PCR with SGTF reagent can provide an early indication if Omicron is possible.

"Because we can get PCR results in 4-6 hours, for WGS it takes 5-7 days," he said.