COVID-19 Task Force Asks People To Stay Calm Waiting For Omicron To Be Researched

ILLUSTRA TION BY VOI

JAKARTA - The Coordinator of the Expert Team and Spokesperson for the Government's COVID-19 Handling Wiku Adisasmito asked the public to remain calm waiting for the characteristics of the Omicron variant which is still under research.

"The public is asked to remain calm and participate in creating a conducive atmosphere, monitoring the current situation by following updates from the government," said Wiku, quoted by Antara, Tuesday, December 21.

Wiku said that as of December 20, 2021, it was known that the Omicron variant had been found in 92 countries including Indonesia, which had contributed three cases in it.

Of the many countries that have confirmed the new variant, the number of cases due to Omicron in the world now stands at 62,342.

Along with the increase in the number of cases so far, the World Health Organization (WHO) stated that the findings of the characteristics of the Omicron variant with preliminary baseline studies conducted among which there was no evidence of an increase in the transmissibility of the variant.

In this study, there was no evidence of the severity of symptoms and whether there was a possible chance of transmission in COVID-19 survivors and indirectly able to fight the immunity that had been formed in the community.

However, until now, the COVID-19 test using the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) is still considered capable of detecting if the Omicron variant enters Indonesia. As for the tests using antigen tests, they are still in the research stage.

Therefore, Wiku emphasized all parties to remain calm and continue to follow the development of information provided by the government through official government websites such as from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Health and the COVID-19 Task Force to prevent the development of hoaxes in the community while waiting for the results of further research.

"Instead of causing fear by spreading things that are not necessarily true, it would be better if we were more careful by implementing health protocols," said Wiku.