Omicron Peak Prediction In February, Ministry Of Health: Up To 55.000 Daily Cases

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JAKARTA - The government predicts that the findings of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 cases in Indonesia will reach its peak in early February.

Director of Prevention and Control of Directly Infectious Diseases of the Ministry of Health (Kemenkes), Siti Nadia Tarmizi estimates that the highest spike in COVID-19 cases per day could be more than 50 thousand cases similar to the surge in the Delta variant.

"Probably around 40.000 to 55.000 daily COVID-19 cases," Nadia told VOI, Friday, January 14.

Nadia reminded the public to be aware of the spike in cases due to Omicron transmission, which has spread through local transmission. Given, the ability to transmit it faster than the Delta variant.

"When viewed from its development, confirmation of Omicron tends to increase, from the SGTF examination, probable cases of Omicron in PPLN tend to increase, WGS results also show the proportion of Omicron variants that are starting to dominate," said Nadia.

Previously, Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said the government had anticipated a surge in cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 by doing a number of things. Including, preparing hundreds of thousands of beds to treat patients and provide oxygen supply.

"The number of beds in Indonesia is around 400 thousand, 30 percent or 120 thousand we dedicate to COVID-19 (patients) which are now occupied by around 2.400 to 2.500. So there are still more than 110 thousand rooms," Budi said some time ago.

The government also provides oxygen to deal with a surge in cases due to the Omicron variant. This effort, he said, learned from the scarcity of oxygen when the new Delta variant emerged in the country.

At that time, continued Budi, oxygen demand had jumped from 700 tons per day to 2.200 tons per day. So, currently, the government has prepared tens of thousands of oxygen concentrators.

"What we have done, after the peak of last July, we have brought in 16.000 oxygen concentrators which we have sent to all hospitals throughout Indonesia, especially those with difficult access to oxygen," said the former Deputy Minister of SOEs.

"This is equivalent to 800 tons per day. (So later) just plug in the electricity, he can release oxygen (then) we inhale," continued Budi.

Furthermore, the government has also received and is currently installing a 70 percent oxygen generator. "This is a large amount of oxygen that can supply a hospital and can also make tube fillers. We have prepared that," he added.