Don't Be Complacent And Keep The Health Protocol After Eid

Illustration (Photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - Australia's Griffith University epidemiologist Dicky Budiman warned that the absence of a spike in COVID-19 cases after Eid 2022 and the absence of new variants or sub-variants in Indonesia should not make people complacent but still have to take steps to prevent transmission.

"When I predict that after returning home for Eid, we don't really see a potential spike with the assumption that there are no new variants or sub-variants of Omicron coming in, especially BA.4 and BA.5 and now BA 12.1 is the one to watch out for," said Dicky when contacted via messaging application from Jakarta, as reported by Antara, Wednesday, May 11.

According to him, if the variant or subvariance enters the country, there can be a change in the situation from the current sloping case and there is the potential for another spike in the increase in COVID-19 patients.

This has the potential to also happen in areas that already have adequate COVID-19 vaccination coverage.

For this reason, he urges all parties not to be carried away by the current pandemic situation but should continue to strictly implement health protocols as a form of preventing COVID-19 transmission and accelerating COVID-19 vaccination.

"Don't be euphoric, don't relax what are called masks, restrictions and especially acceleration of vaccination. This is difficult if we are not consistent, we will experience what is now experienced in South Africa and in America, spikes in cases," he said.

Regarding the transition to endemic status, he said ideally the case status had sloping, not necessarily zero COVID-19 cases, and the highest reproduction rate was 1 or less in a minimum of more than two weeks.

If it continues to be maintained within three months then it has led to not only endemic but also under control, if no cases are reported or only occur in some areas.