DIY Governor Announces 73 Positive Cases Of Omicron

Governor of the Special Region of Yogyakarta Sri Sultan Hamengku Buwono X (ANTARA PHOTO/Luqman Hakim)

YOGYAKARTA - The Governor of the Special Region of Yogyakarta (DIY), Sri Sultan Hamengku Buwono X, announced that as many as 73 samples of COVID-19 cases were confirmed positive for Omicron.

The sample confirmed positive for Omicron was based on the results of "Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS)" at the UGM FKKMK Laboratory and the Yogyakarta Center for Environmental Health and Disease Control Engineering (BBTKLPP).

"There were positive Omicron 73 out of 83 samples tested", said Sultan at the Kepatihan Ward, Yogyakarta, as reported by Antara on Thursday, February 10.

Sultan claimed not to know the identity or address of the person whose sample was confirmed positive for Omicron.

However, according to him, most of the samples came from travelers or tourists who carried out a swab check independently before returning to their area of origin.

"These are tourists who go to Yogyakarta, before returning they took the initiative to 'tracing' at a hospital or clinic in Yogyakarta. As soon as the blood was taken, he returned to his area. Well, it turned out that after the sample was processed at Gadjah Mada University and BBTKLPP, it turned out that there was an Omicron 73", he said.

With the emergence of a positive case of Omicron in DI Yogyakarta, the King of the Yogyakarta Palace appealed to his citizens to be more vigilant by implementing health protocols in a disciplined manner.

"From this, we believe that the Omicron is in Yogyakarta, even though it was originally from tourists", he said.

In addition to implementing the PPKM (Community Activity Restrictions) level 3 rules as determined by the central government, according to the Sultan, the activities of the COVID-19 task force will be reactivated up to the village level.

"Even though the understanding (severity) is lighter, the transmission is faster, so I hope the people of Yogyakarta are careful in the health protocol and wearing masks is something very important", said "Ngarsa Dalem", a nickname of Sri Sultan Hamengku Buwono X.

Meanwhile, the Head of the DI Yogyakarta Health Office, Drg. Pembajun Setyaningastutie explained that the 73 Omicron positive samples came from the WGS results for 36 samples at BBTKLPP and 47 samples at the Laboratory of the Faculty of Medicine, Public Health and Nursing, Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM FKKMK).

"Of the 47 samples (checked at the Universitas Gadjah Mada Laboratory) 39 were positive for Omicron and there were still 8 samples (variant) Delta or 17 percent", she said.

She said that some of the samples examined at the UGM FKKMK and BBTKLPP were samples of people who swab independently in hospitals and clinics.

Although some of the samples were said to belong to travelers, on the other hand, he could not confirm whether any of them had a Yogyakarta ID card or not.

The DIY Health Office, he said, could not check the identity of the owner of the sample because the samples entered at the UGM Laboratory and BBTKLPP were not accompanied by an identity "by name by address".

"Why can't I say where the ID card is, because I didn't get it 'by name by address'. From BBTKLPP, it was only the sending laboratory (sample)", she said.

Of the many samples that were confirmed positive for Omicron, he suspected that local transmission in DIY had already occurred. "Possibly yes", said Pembajun Setyaningastutie.