Banyumas Residents Asked To Obey Prokes Anticipating New Variants

PURWOKERTO - The Banyumas Regency Health Office, Central Java, appealed to the public to continue to obey the health protocols to anticipate the transmission of the new variant of COVID-19 in the form of the Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants.

"In Banyumas in terms of COVID-19 cases, thank God it's still safe, there hasn't been a spike. Today June 13 two active cases have been four to five days, just waiting for the cases to recover", said the Head of Disease Prevention and Control at the Banyumas District Health Office, Arif Sugiono, in Purwokerto, Banyumas, Monday, June 13.

In addition, he said, in the last three days in Banyumas there were no new active cases added, so it can be said that it is still sloping.

He said, based on information from the Ministry of Health, the Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants have entered Indonesia.

In this case, the Ministry of Health has recorded four cases consisting of one BA.4 positive patients with asymptomatic clinical conditions, and three BA.5 positive patients.

"Thus we need to be careful because if we look at the characters, BA.4 and BA.5 are Omicron, they spread fast. But hopefully, if we learn from Omicron, the mortality and hospitalization rates are low", Arif said as quoted by Antara.

In this regard, he hopes that the emergence of the new variant will not result in a spike in COVID-19 cases in Banyumas.

Therefore, he said, the public must remain obedient to the health protocol even though there are easing.

"The activities that are held are still carried out with health protocol. For people who have not received the third dose of vaccine (booster) to get it immediately to further strengthen immunity", said Arif.

Based on data on COVID-19 cases in Banyumas Regency, in the period 1-12 June 2022, there were three active positive cases, one of which has recovered, leaving two active positive cases.

This number is lower than the previous five months, namely May with 13 cases, April with 63 cases, March with 762 cases, February with 1,777 cases, and January with 188 cases.

Meanwhile, there were zero deaths from COVID-19 in Banyumas in the period 1-12 June 2022, while in May there were three people, April as many as 11 people, March reached 76 people, February as many as 59 people, and January zero.

Cumulative vaccination coverage in Banyumas Regency with a target of 1,398,427 targets, based on data from the COVID-19 Handling Committee and National Economic Recovery (KPCPEN) until June 11, 2022, for the first dose there were 1,348,177 people (96.41 percent), the second dose was 1,218,676 people (87.15 percent), and the third dose was 380,687 people (27.22 percent).

Vaccination coverage for the elderly in Banyumas with a target of 194,112 targets, based on KPC-PEN data until June 11, 2022, for the first dose of 172,041 people (88.63 percent) and the second dose of 137,947 people (71.07 percent).