There Are Already 2,321 New Variants Of COVID-19 In Indonesia, Minister Of Health: This Is Beyond Our Control

ILLUSTRATION/UNSPLASH

JAKARTA - Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin explained that there have been 2,321 new variants of COVID-19 found in Indonesia since the 2020 examination until August 29.

Budi admitted that the emergence of the mutated variant of concern (VOC) for COVID-19 cannot be controlled by the government, both in Indonesia and other countries in the world.

"This is beyond our control. Almost all countries with high increases, including Indonesia, are due to new mutations," Budi said in a virtual press conference, Monday, August 30.

The finding of this new variant was based on whole genome sequencing (WGS) examination of 5,788 specimens of positive confirmed cases of COVID-19.

From the findings of 2,321 VOCs in Indonesia, the majority were the Delta variant (B1617.2) with 2,240 cases. Then, there were 64 variants of Alpha (B117), 17 variants of Beta (B1351, B1351.2, and B1351.3).

Minister of Health Budi admitted that the transmission of this new variant of COVID-19 was difficult to predict. This is because the longer a person delays vaccination, the transmission of COVID-19 will occur in an area and the new variant will arise due to transmission.

"The difficulty of this new variant is beyond our ability to prevent it from happening. What is important is how we can react if it exists," said Budi.

To date, there have been 4,079,267 positive confirmed cases in Indonesia with an additional 5,436 cases on August 30, 2021.

There are also active cases to date as many as 203,060 cases. Then, there was an increase of 19,398 recovered cases, bringing the total to 3,743,716 cases. Then, there were an additional 568 deaths and a total of 132,491 cases.

As of today, there have been 62,294,896 people who received the first dose of vaccination and 35,314,460 of the second dose of vaccination. Meanwhile, the target for vaccination in Indonesia is 208,265,720 people.