24 Countries Report Cases Of COVID-19 Variant XBB

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) stated that as many as 24 countries have reported finding cases of COVID-19 with the XBB variant.

"Our closest neighboring country, namely Singapore, has experienced an increase in COVID-19 cases, after the discovery of the XBB sub-variant. The trend of cases is 8,056 cases with the dominant variant XBB 73.3 percent," said Director of Health Surveillance and Quarantine of the Ministry of Health Achmad Farchanny Tri Adryanto as reported by ANTARA, Thursday, October 27.

Based on Cov-Spectrum data as of 19 October 2022, six of the 24 countries that reported having the highest proportion of increase in cases due to the XBB variant were Bangladesh 100 percent, Singapore 73.30 percent, India 16.70 percent, Cambodia 7.10 percent, Australia 3 .30 percent and Austria 2.50 percent.

Meanwhile, eight countries that have shown an increasing trend of positive cases of COVID-19 are Singapore, England, Japan, South Korea, Canada, New Zealand, Brunei Darussalam and Indonesia.

Farchanny explained that in Indonesia itself, four cases have been found with the XBB variant. In which three cases came from DKI Jakarta and were positive for XBB. While one other case came from East Java and tested positive for XBB.1.

Despite being infected with the XBB variant, Farchanny said three patients had mild symptoms such as cough, runny nose and fever. While one does not have any symptoms of COVID-19 and two of them have a history of travel from Singapore.

"So there are currently 3,000 cases in total, in us, the dominant sub variant is BA.5. For the XBB, only four have been reported. This has been conveyed by experts from the start, indeed this virus will continue to mutate," he said.

Farchanny said that as of Thursday (27/10), the positivity rate in Indonesia had increased to 10.23 percent. A total of 29,785 people have tested for COVID-19. With details of 11,464 people who have been tested by PCR, but 2,074 of them have tested positive for COVID-19.

Meanwhile, of the 18,321 people who were tested for antigen, 344 of them were positive for COVID-19. He emphasized that although there were only four cases with the XBB variant that were found, the community would not want to be forced to adapt and live together with COVID-19.

Thus, the application of health protocols that are balanced with vaccinations must be strengthened, so that humans can overcome various variants of COVID-19 due to mutations. It is scientifically proven to reduce the severity and character of the virus.

He hopes that all people will not underestimate the XBB variant because of its very fast transmission rate, so that Indonesia does not have to face another wave of COVID-19 when it enters the beginning of the new year.

“Globally or in Indonesia, this case tends to increase. So we convey to the Indonesian people, let's start being more vigilant," he said.