Task Force: Omicron BA.2 Subvariant Detected In 19 Provinces

ILLUSTRA TION BY VOI

JAKARTA - Government Spokesperson for Handling COVID-19 Wiku Adisasmito said the Omicron BA.2 subvariant has been detected in 19 provinces in Indonesia.

"Regardless of the current condition of the case, our common goal is to control positive cases and deaths, and then continue consistently," said Wiku, quoted by Antara, Tuesday, March 15.

Responding to the number of subvariant cases from Omicron, Wiku said that based on data from GISAID on March 13, Indonesia has seen an increase in cases of Omicron BA.2 since the beginning of 2022.

It is recorded that the number of cases of the subvariance has been detected in 19 provinces and the total has reached 8,302 cases from the genome sequencing examination that has been carried out.

Unfortunately, this happened at a time when the national COVID-19 vaccination coverage was decreasing, so he asked the entire community to immediately go to the nearest health facility to get a complete or booster dose.

As for local governments, he asked to accelerate the delivery of COVID-19 vaccinations so that community protection through group immunity can be formed and avoid these variants.

“We ask the local government to again increase the coverage of complete and booster doses of vaccination in their area. Don't hesitate to continue to increase the booster vaccination coverage for stronger community protection," he said.

Previously, Spokesperson for the Ministry of Health, Siti Nadia Tarmizi, said the Omicron BA.2 subvariant contributed to an increase in the rate of patient care in a number of countries.

"We have observed and studied the rate of transmission in several countries, such as in Hong Kong, South Korea, England, which we know have increased treatment cases due to an increase in the new variant of Omicron, namely the BA.2 subvariant," said Nadia.

Nadia said Indonesia was aware of the potential spike in cases affected by the BA.2 subvariance because of its characteristics of having a high transmission rate or spreading more quickly and having a severity level if someone is infected.

Symptoms that generally occur are similar to the BA.1 subvariant which now dominates the distribution of the virus in Indonesia. However, it is certain that the COVID-19 vaccine circulating in Indonesia is still effective in preventing all Omicron subvariants.

"The principle is to complete the two-dose vaccination and of course the addition of a third or booster vaccine will increase our defenses, including against the Omicron subvariant," he said.