The Ministry Of Health Reminds Again Omicron Can Be Infected To People Who Have Been Vaccinated

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JAKARTA - Spokesperson for the COVID-19 Vaccination of the Ministry of Health (Kemkes) Siti Nadia Tarmizi said the Omicron variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 can be transmitted to people who have been vaccinated and cause COVID-19 infection to recur.

"He (the Omicron variant) can infect people who have been vaccinated again," Nadia said during a virtual discussion to stem Omicron transmission, quoted by Antara, Friday, December 24.

Nadia said people who had been vaccinated and received boosters (three doses) could still catch COVID-19 due to infection with the Omicron variant.

An infection-related study in South Africa showed Omicron infection could occur in the full-dose vaccine group with mild to moderate clinical symptoms.

"What is certain is that we know that this Omicron is transmitted more quickly and can avoid the immune system," he said.

Therefore, consistent application of health protocols is very important because the cumulative number of Omicron cases increases very quickly compared to other variants.

In addition to being more infectious, Nadia said the Omicron variant can also avoid the immune system, both from natural post-infection and after COVID-19 vaccination.

The Omicron variant is also more contagious than the Delta variant. According to several studies, Omicron causes a decrease in the neutralizing ability of the vaccine's effectiveness.

The Omicron variant caused the effectiveness of the Pfizer-BioNTech two-dose vaccine to decrease so that the vaccine's effectiveness was only 33 percent in reducing Omicron infections.

Regarding the detection of variants, Nadia said that PCR and rapid antigen are still very good at detecting positive cases, although they cannot detect whether these cases are infections of the Omicron variant or not.