Riau Governor Admits There Are Six Delta Variant COVID-19 Patients, Two Of Them Died

Governor Syamsuar explained that the Delta variant already exists in Riau. (Antara/Humas Riau Provincial Government)

RIAU - Riau Governor Syamsuar asked the public to be more vigilant because now the Delta variant of COVID-19 has been found in Riau. The governor said that six people had contracted the new variant of the virus.

"I don't mean to scare, but this is so that we can be more vigilant because the Delta variant has been found in Riau. Six people infected with the variant are from Pekanbaru City, Siak and Bengkalis Regencies. Two of them have died," said Syamsuar concerned, as quoted by Antara, Wednesday 11 August.

He further explained that his party only conveyed it now because the results were only known, after an examination at the Jakarta laboratory, because in Riau they could not examine the new variant.

Therefore, currently Gubri Syamsuar and related parties are trying to buy a tool that can research the new variant.

"The tool is also not available in Riau so it must be ordered in advance, hopefully in the near future it will arrive in Riau," he hoped.

The Governor of Riau continues to remind the public to always be vigilant, obedient, and disciplined in implementing health protocols, by doing the 5 M. This is to break the spread of the COVID-19 chain, which is still high in cases in Riau.

Syamsuar said that another policy taken by the Riau Provincial Government was to re-block the provincial border to reduce the mobilization of people entering Riau. In the case of Riau, there are many residents from neighboring provinces.

"In recent days, we have seen a trend of cases, with residents coming from other provinces, and the number of positive cases has also increased. After identification, the high cases outside Riau came from the provinces of West Sumatra and North Sumatra. Meanwhile, the entrance is via air transportation from the two provinces do not exist," he explained.

"That's why we have made the conclusion to carry out re-blocking in the provincial border areas, between West Sumatra, North Sumatra and Jambi. The hope is to reduce the mobility of people from outside Riau, control the transmission of COVID-19," he hoped.

"Earlier it was agreed, and each regent whose area is on the provincial border is ready to carry out the partition, and there are even regents who have implemented it," he concluded.

To note, until yesterday Riau recorded the number of active cases reached 12,880 people. Of that number, 1,339 people were hospitalized, 11,541 people were self-isolating at home or in centralized isolation.

The number of positive confirmations in Riau was recorded at 109,550 cases, recovered cases were 93,635 or 85.5 percent and cases died as many as 3,035 or 2.8 percent.