Jokowi Orders His Subordinates To Beware Of Omicron B1.4 And BA.5 Cases In Indonesia

President Jokowi (doc. BPMI Setpres)

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) asked his subordinates in the cabinet to be aware of the latest variants of COVID-19, Omicron B1.4 and BA.5.

This was conveyed by the Minister of Health (Menkes) Budi Gunadi Sadikin after attending a limited meeting related to the Evaluation of the Implementation of Restrictions on Community Activities (PPKM) at the Merdeka Palace, Jakarta, Monday 13 June.

The Minister of Health said that vigilance needs to be increased even though the three transmission indicators of the World Health Organization (WHO) Indonesia are currently still in good condition.

"From the three transmission indicators, Indonesia's condition is still good. However, the President has given us directions, it is better for us to be vigilant, be careful," said the Minister of Health.

There are three transmission indicators, continued the Minister of Health, namely the level of confirmation cases, positivity rate, and reproduction rate.

He said that currently confirmed cases in Indonesia are still at level one with a maximum of 20 cases per week per 100.000 inhabitants.

For the positivity rate, based on the Antara report, Indonesia is still at 1.36 percent from the standard 5 percent, which must be watched out for.

While the reproduction rate is still at number 1 of the provisions that must be watched out for if it is above number 1.

Budi said vigilance and caution in handling COVID-19 has proven to have resulted in the handling of the pandemic in Indonesia being relatively good when compared to other countries in the world.

In addition, he stressed that the prudence that has been proven so far has not slowed down the economy because the Indonesian economy is now almost back to normal.

It is also said that President Jokowi also wants booster vaccination to continue to be improved.

According to him, the peak of a variant will occur 1 month after the first case was discovered, so it is estimated that the peak of BA.4 and BA.5 cases will occur in the second or third week of July 2022.

With more people receiving the booster vaccine, he hopes the peaks in BA.4 and BA.5 cases will not be as high.