Ministry Of Health: Omicron BA.4 And BA.5 Subvariants Become 20 Cases In Indonesia

UNSPLASH ILLUSTRATION

JAKARTA - Spokesperson for the Ministry of Health, Mohammad Syahril, reported that the latest cases of the Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants in the country as of Tuesday afternoon were 20 cases.

"As of today, 20 Omicron subvariants are consisting of two BA.4 cases and 18 BA.5 cases", said Mohammad Syahril, quoted by Antara, Tuesday, June 14.

Thus, the case rate for the Omicron subvariant increased by 12 cases from the previous report of eight cases.

BA.4 and BA.5 in Indonesia began with the report of four cases in Bali on June 6, 2022, and added four more cases in Jakarta in the next few days.

Separately, the Director of the Post-Graduate Program at YARSI University, Prof. Tjandra Yoga Aditama, said the transmission rate of BA.4 and BA.5 in Indonesia is estimated to have increased fivefold in recent days.

The latest information from the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) released on Monday, June 13 states that BA.4 and BA.5 were first discovered in South Africa in January and February 2022.

According to Tjandra, BA.4 and BA.5 are part of the Omicron clade (B.1.1.529). The ECDC upgraded the BA.4 and BA.5 classifications from Variants of Interest to Variants of Concern (VOC) on May 12, 2022.

"It is expected to be dominant in Europe in the weeks to come", he said.

Tjandra, who is also the former Director of Infectious Diseases of WHO Southeast Asia, said the potential increase in cases depends on the protection of immunity-related to the coverage and timing of previous vaccinations.

"Our health workers have been boosted more than 6 months ago. The increase in cases is also influenced by the landscape from the last wave", he said.

In general, said Tjandra, there is no scientific evidence that the Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants cause more severe pain than their predecessor variants. "But we have to be very careful about the increase in hospitalization for those aged over 60 or 65 years", he said.

ECDC is still collecting data on the effectiveness of monoclonal antibodies (mAb) drugs in BA.4 and BA.5 patients. "But so far it seems the effect has decreased a little bit or has stayed the same", he said.