Ministry Of Health: The Third Wave Of COVID-19 Is A Necessity

Illustration of a distance keeper (Photo by Barthelemy de Mazenod on Unsplash)

JAKARTA - Spokesperson for the Ministry of Health, Siti Nadia Tarmizi, said that the third wave or the third spike in COVID-19 cases in Indonesia would definitely occur. However, currently, the pandemic is under control.

"The third wave is a necessity, because we have seen that one scientific publication has said that the pattern of the COVID-19 disease will cause several waves," Nadia said in a virtual discussion, quoted Friday, October 22.

This means, said Nadia, that COVID-19 is not enough with one peak of the wave, then it goes down, and finally, the case continues to slope.

Nadia gave an example in countries with high vaccination coverage, a third wave could still occur due to the massive relaxation of health protocols, such as Britain, America, and Israel.

"They also have an increase in cases, although the mortality and morbidity are relatively lower. So, there are already examples of countries entering the third wave," said Nadia.

Moreover, currently, the Delta variant is a type of viral mutation that still dominates in Indonesia. As is known, the delta variant is a very virulent and infectious type of COVID-19.

"The Delta variant will spread quickly, waiting for when we are careless so that we will cause a widespread in the community which will result in an increase in cases," explained Nadia.

The Director of Prevention of Directly Infectious Diseases Control (P2PML) of the Ministry of Health said, the third wave would occur in Indonesia if the health protocols in the community were increasingly negligent, especially there would be year-end holidays and several religious holidays that increased mobility.

"These potentials make it inevitable that the third wave will occur, of course, we must continue to remind the public that the pandemic is not over yet," she explained.

For information, Indonesia experienced the first wave of COVID-19 from November 2020 to January 2021. This spike in cases occurred after the long holiday of the Prophet's Birthday, which was followed by the 2021 Christmas and New Year holidays.

After briefly sloping down, COVID-19 cases in Indonesia jumped again and entered the second wave in June-July 2021. This happened due to the Eid holiday and the entry of the Delta variant.