Regarding Omciron Transmission, Batam Residents Are Called Not To Panic

Head of the Riau Islands Provincial Health Office Muhammad Bisri/Photo: Antara

BATAM - Residents are asked not to panic in the face of local transmission of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 in Batam City and Karimun Regency, Riau Islands Province.

"The public should not worry about the Omicron problem, it is the same and it is still COVID-19", said Head of the Riau Islands Provincial Health Office Muhammad Bisri by telephone in Batam, Thursday, January 27.

He emphasized that the handling, treatment, and methods of avoiding exposure to Omicron are the same as the previously circulated variants.

Even so, he stated that the public still had to be vigilant, avoiding the risk of transmission.

"People need to be alert, worrying is useless, worrying is useless, afraid is useless. What is useful is if we are vigilant, want to take care of ourselves to avoid the risk of transmission, that is only useful", he said, quoted by Antara.

Based on data from the Batam Center for Environmental Health and Disease Control Engineering (BTKLPP), six Riau Islands residents were infected with the Omicron variant of COVID-19, one of them is a Karimun resident, five other residents live in Batam City, based on the SGTF PCR examination.

He said that Batam residents who were declared infected with Omicron had recently traveled from Jakarta. And some are infected with local transmission.

However, he confirmed that until now there was no Omicron cluster in Batam because the residents who were confirmed positive were separated.

His party is now monitoring the development of COVID-19 transmission over the next few days to find out the spread of Omicron in border areas.

"Is this widespread, what we are observing. So whether it becomes a cluster due to rapid transmission over the next few days. We are testing, 'tracing'", he said.

In line with Bisri, Head of Batam City Health Office, Didi Kusmarjadi, also asked residents not to worry too much about the spread of Omicron in Batam.

"The symptoms are mild, or asymptomatic. Just because it's so easily contagious, that's something to worry about", he added.