PB IDI Urges Tightening Health Protocols To Anticipate Spike In COVID-19 Cases

DOCUMENTATION/ANTARA/Fikri Yusuf)

JAKARTA - Head of the COVID-19 Task Force for the Executive Board of the Indonesian Doctors Association (PB IDI) Prof. DR. Dr. Erlina Burhan Sp.P(K), appealed to the public to increase health protocols again such as wearing masks and avoiding crowds to anticipate COVID-19 cases.

Erlina said there was an increase in cases of the COVID-19 variant in 104 countries with variants EG.5, HK.3 and BA.2.86, including Singapore and Malaysia.

"We do see now that the implementation of health protocols, especially wearing masks, is starting to sag, but, looking at the conditions and spikes in cases in Singapore and Malaysia, even in Indonesia, we from PB IDI urge you to start again now wearing masks if you have symptoms of cough, runny nose, sneezing," Erlina said as quoted by ANTARA, Wednesday, December 6.

Reports globally recorded a spike in new cases of the COVID-19 variant in the last 28 days from 23 October - 19 November 2023. There were 104 countries that reported an increase in cases and 43 countries that reported deaths.

In Singapore, there were 22 thousand cases of variants from Omicron, namely EG.5 and HK 3 which dominated 70 percent of the total cases in October - November. The Omicron variant also evolved, including BA.2.86 with low infection abilities.

Meanwhile in Malaysia from data from October 2-8 there were 927 confirmed cases and in November there was an increase of nearly 4,000 cases. The increase in cases in Singapore and Malaysia, said Erlina, was due to high mobility, where people in November traveled on vacation at the end of the year, and gathered with friends.

"Their data also shows that it turns out that people's antibodies have decreased because theoretically they say that after six months or 12 months there has been a decrease in antibodies," said Erlina.

From data, 89 countries have reportedly experienced an increase in cases, such as in America with the EG.5 variant of 24.8 percent, Canada 12 percent, China 10 percent, Japan 7 percent and South Korea 6 percent.

Meanwhile, data from the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID), the condition of increasing cases in Indonesia has recorded cases of EG.5 since June, and in July it increased by 20 percent and in August it decreased again.

An increase in cases of the COVID-19 variant also occurred in Indonesia from October to November 2023 with 65 confirmed cases on October 2-8, and 151 cases on November 20-26 and one case died in November.

The inpatient situation due to this subvariant is also relatively low, Soetomo Hospital Surabaya treated two patients from October to November. Meanwhile, in West Java, bed occupancy is also still below 3 percent in the period September to November 2023.

Erlina appealed to the public not to panic because the subvariant from Omicron has mild symptoms and it is not yet certain whether the infections bA.2.86, EG.5 and HK.3 produce symptoms that are different from other variants.

"This variant has the same symptoms of COVID-19 in general, tends to be similar among various variants, namely high fever, cough, rhinorrhea (nosemeler), loss of smell and taste," said Erlina.

The determining factors for the severity of symptoms depend on a person's immunity, especially the elderly group, people with comorbidities such as diabetes mellitus, hypertension, uncontrolled kidney disorders and people with immunocompromise conditions such as HIV, autoimmunity and cancer.

Erlina also advised to live a healthy life, eat with balanced nutrition, wash hands with running water, wear masks while in crowds and travel and limiting time in a closed room.