COVID-19 America To Europe Is Still High, Minister Of Health Says New Variants Will Definitely Appear Again

PIXABAY ILLUSTRATION

JAKARTA - Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said that currently the number of COVID-19 cases in a number of countries is still high, ranging from America, Japan, to several European countries.

The high number of cases in these countries is caused by the transmission of cases of the Omicron variants of the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants.

"Indeed, we have seen that several countries, such as Japan, countries in Europe, in America, the daily confirmed cases are above 100,000, Japanese materials are above 200,000 per day," said Minister of Health Budi after a limited meeting of PPKM at the Presidential Palace, Tuesday, 23 August.

From the high number of cases, Budi said that in the near future, the world will again be hit by a further wave of COVID-19 due to the emergence of new COVID-19 variants in addition to the existing variants.

"This high daily confirmation case will definitely result in mutations and the emergence of new variants. So there will definitely be new variants, new variants will definitely arise, because of the high conformation cases," said Budi.

Meanwhile, currently the development of COVID-19 cases in Indonesia is still lower than other countries which are surging.

The average daily case in Indonesia over the past week was around 4,683. Then, the percentage of positive cases or the weekly positivity rate is at 9 percent. Then, the current active cases are around 48 thousand.

Minister of Health Budi explained that the case factor in Indonesia was more controlled than other countries. Currently, the average community antibody against the corona virus is at the level of 98.5 percent. This figure has increased from 88 percent in December 2021. Then, the antibody level of the Indonesian people is currently more than 2,000 units per milliliter.

"It is proven that the Indonesian population is very protected from the antibody level. That's why for the case of the BA.4 BA.5 wave in Japan, Europe, America, there is a very high increase in confirmed cases, we don't. Because the level of immunity of the Indonesian people is already high. very high," said Budi.

However, the Minister of Health said that does not mean that Indonesia will be free from the threat of the next wave of COVID-19 cases. Budi estimates that the wave of COVID-19 due to the new virus mutation will last for the next 6 months.

"Now the exams are 6 months away, around January, February and March 2023," he added.