Epidemologist Reminds Government To Limit Flights Overseas

Illustration/Photo: Antara

JAKARTA - Epidemiologist from the University of Indonesia (UI) Tri Yunis Miko Wahyono said foreign travel should be limited to those who have urgent needs with many overseas travelers (PPLN) confirmed by Omicron. urgent needs," said Tri Yunis Miko Wahyono, quoted by Antara, Friday, January 28. "Tourism is prohibited. If it is only for picnics," he added. 63 percent of Omicron cases in Indonesia are foreign travelers or 1,019 people.

The remaining 369 people are local transmissions (23 percent) and 238 people have no known history of their occurrence. With the Omicron case, the academic at the UI Faculty of Public Health also believes that there is a need to impose a level 4 community activity restriction (PPKM) for areas that have been confirmed to have variants. This can be done to reduce the number of daily additional cases, with a drastic increase in cases being something that, according to him, is unavoidable. However, he believes that the health care system in Indonesia has the potential to not face an increase in COVID-19 cases with severe symptoms as happened when the Delta variant will cause a high spike in 2021. "I don't think there will be as many severe cases as Delta used to be because Indonesians have been infected or vaccinated. So if the proportion (symptoms) is moderate to severe, it used to be 20 percent, now it's only five to 10 percent," he said.