COVID-19 Cases In South Sulawesi Are Not Just Omicron, But There Are Still Many Deadly Delta Variants

Illustration of treatment in hospital (Photo by Marcelo Leal on Unsplash)

JAKARTA - An Epidemiologist at Hasanuddin University Makassar, Prof. Ridwan Amiruddin, confirmed that apart from the Omicron variant, the Delta variant is still spreading outside Java, especially in South Sulawesi.

He explained that nationally, 90-96 percent of the Omicron variant has spread, mainly in Java. Meanwhile, in areas outside Java, there is still a mix between Omicron and Delta.

"With this combination of variants, Delta has a high fatality rate compared to the Omicron variant. But Omicron has a transmission rate six times faster than Delta", he said in Makassar, Thursday, February 10, quoted from Antara.

Prof. Ridwan explained that although the Omicron spread rate was faster, it was not worse than Delta. For the most part, Omicron is symptomatic 40-50 percent.

"He has mild and moderate symptoms, so for those who are indicated to have COVID-19, the Omicron variant, with good isolation, can recover as soon as possible", he said.

This Omicron incubation tends to be shorter than before, ranging from 5-6 days, which means that five days before that exposure has occurred and has the potential to be a source of transmission. Therefore, the government has tightened post-flight isolation, which is seven days.

According to Prof. Ridwan, it is certain that the opening of the airport has the potential to enter a very large number of new cases, therefore tightening at the entrance is very important.

"This is where the role of friends in the field, the task force, and then the immigration department is to improve early detection to be able to detect anyone who has the potential or is detected to be a source of transmission", he explained.

The efforts made by the Government of South Sulawesi, in terms of tracking cases, are still at a ratio of 1:5 or 1:8 and it is still considered very low compared to the national standard of 1:15 or much lower than the WHO standard (World Health Organization) 1:30.

This, said the Professor of Faculty of Public Health, Hasanuddin University, became a big task for the South Sulawesi Government to boost and maximize the number of contact tracing.

"Then in terms of testing, it still needs improvement. So this is a big homework for the South Sulawesi Government to suppress the rate of case growth", he said.*