COVID-19 Task Force Calls Delta Variant Still In Indonesia

Illustration/Photo: PIXABAY

JAKARTA - Head of the Health Support Sub-Sector for the COVID-19 Task Force Brigadier General TNI (Ret.) Alexander K. Ginting emphasized that the Delta variant is currently still circulating even though Indonesia is facing the third wave due to Omicron.

“In Indonesia, this is not only about Omicron. There are reports that still state that the Delta variant is still circulating," he said in an online seminar themed "Strategies for Facing the Third Wave of the Pandemic" which was attended in Jakarta, Friday, February 18.

He said the data on the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 variant per province belonging to the COVID-19 Task Force showed that the Delta variant was still circulating in the community and its coverage was much wider than that of Omicron.

One of the provinces that is still reporting many cases of COVID-19 due to the Delta variant, he said, is West Java.

“The problem now is that many people are always talking about Omicron. Even though in Indonesia, it was reported that we still have Alfa, Beta and Delta variants," he emphasized.

According to him, the public should not have polemics when checking themselves, either in hospitals or laboratories, to find out what kind of variant of COVID-19 has hit him.

The examination, he said, was only intended to determine whether the results that came out were positive or negative.

Because, if someone is confirmed positive, either the Delta or Omicron variant, that person is still proven to have been exposed to COVID-19.

"Whether it's about Delta, Alpha, Beta, Gamma or whatever, it's in the interests of clinical workers, the interests of health practitioners and the interests of policy makers," he said.

Due to the large number of people who are more certain of themselves being exposed to the Omicron variant, the Task Force hopes that all stakeholders can continue to emphasize that any variant of COVID-19, because only by complying with health protocols and strengthening pandemic tracking can be resolved.

"We don't need to lead them to the dreams of the COVID-19 variants. But what we bring is that all of them COVID-19 and corona viruses have properties that are easy to transmit, easy to replicate and easy to mutate," said Alexander K. Ginting.