Task Force: Recorded 12 Cases Of Delta Variant In West Papua

ILLUSTRATION/UNSPLASH

MANOKWARI - The West Papua COVID-19 task force noted that there have been 12 cases of residents exposed to the Delta variant, thus asking residents to tighten health protocols, including an appeal to use two layers of masks.

"Of the 26 samples examined at Balitbangkes, 12 of them were identified as new cases of mutation of the Coronavirus variant Delta B1617.2 in West Papua as of July 31, 2021", said West Papua COVID-19 Task Force spokesman, doctor Arnold Tiniap, quoted by Antara, Tuesday, August 3. This epidemiologist said that the Delta variant has a faster transmission rate, so the health protocol must be tightened with two masks, as well as restrictions on people's movements.

"There is no other choice, other than tightening health protocols, as much as possible with two masks. And the most important thing is to limit people's activities because this Delta variant virus follows people's movements", said doctor Arnold Tiniap.

It is known that the Research and Development Agency of the Ministry of Health report as of July 31, 2021, that examination of 26 specimens through the Whole Genome Sequence (WGS), found 12 cases of delta variants in West Papua. The data is attached by Balitbangkes through the litbang.kemkes.go.id.

He explained that the Delta variant was the wariest because it had a high and aggressive rate of transmission. The Ministry of Health even mentions that the transmission speed of the Delta variant is 6 times that of the Alfa variant so that it can create exponential transmission.

Furthermore, Arnold Tiniap reported that the daily data of the West Papua COVID-19 Task Force, Tuesday, recorded an additional 209 new cases, bringing the total active cases in the province to 2,640 people.

He also reported that 142 patients recovered from COVID-19, and 2 more people died from COVID-19 from Manokwari and Maybrat regencies.

"The number of deaths has increased by two, bringing the total number of deaths due to COVID-19 in this province to 292", added Arnold Tiniap.