Batam Health Office Reminds Potential Spike In COVID-19 Cases Until Lebaran If Residents Disobey Prokes

BATAM - The Batam City Health Office in Riau Islands warned of the potential for a spike in COVID-19 cases in the local area until Lebaran 2022, if people do not strictly adhere to health protocols.

"Our prediction is that within one week there will be 150 cases, until Lebaran there could be 4,000 active cases if the algorithm application formula is entered. To suppress that, we must apply health protocols," said Head of Batam City Health Office Didi Kusmarjadi after a coordination meeting on handling COVID-19, quoted by Antara. Between, Monday, February 7th.

Therefore, his party decided to break the chain of transmission of COVID-19, by treating corona virus patients to hospitals. Residents are not advised to undergo self-isolation at home, along with the implementation of strict health protocols.

Currently, the majority of residents exposed to COVID-19 are undergoing treatment at the Galang Island Infection Special Hospital. He stated that the capacity of the Galang Island Hospital was still sufficient to treat residents of the city who were confirmed to have COVID-19.

According to Didi, the number of Indonesian migrant workers being treated at the Galang Island Hospital is decreasing, so the hospital on the buffer island is used to treat the city's residents.

Despite the spike in COVID-19 transmission, only three confirmed cases have been reported by Omicron, namely two family members who had just returned from Switzerland, and another Batam resident.

Meanwhile, dozens of people who were declared probable Omicron based on STGF, have not received confirmation from the Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) examination.

According to him, the acceleration of transmission of Omicron which was mentioned could reach four times the Delta variant, which was not proven in Batam.

"Facts on the ground, Omicron is light. In fact, there are two cases (having undergone centralized isolation) at the Hajj Dormitory. There was no Omicron explosion," said Didi.