Indonesian Confirms 27 New Cases Omicron Variant

Jakarta, MINA – Spokesperson for Vaccination of the Indonesian Ministry of Health, Siti Nadia Tarmizi on Sunday said that there were 27 additional confirmed cases of Omicron, most of which came from international travellers.

“Based on the results of the examination of specimens by the Litbangkes Agency, we again identified 27 additional Omicron cases. Currently, most of them have been quarantined at Wisma Athletes and partly at RSPI Sulianti Saroso,” said spokesperson Nadia as quoted from the Indonesian Ministry of Health website.

With these additional cases, the total number of confirmed cases of Omicron in Indonesia has reached 46 since it was first reported on December 16.

The findings come from the results of the WGS examination by the Litbangkes Agency which came out on December 25, 2021. A total of 26 cases were imported cases, including 25 Indonesian citizens (WNI) who had just returned from Malaysia, Kenya, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Malawi, Spanish, English, Turkish, and 1 foreigner from Nigeria. Meanwhile, one positive case is a health worker at the Wisma Atlet RSDC.

The Omicron case was detected when international travelers arrived in Indonesia and underwent a 10-day quarantine. Some cases were detected after they had served more than three days in quarantine.

Previously, the Ministry of Health confirmed the first case of Omicron on December 15, 2021, which attacked a janitor at the Wisma Atlet RSDC.

On December 17, from the results of the examination of 5 probable cases, 2 cases, namely Indonesian citizens from the UK and the United States were confirmed positive.

Then on December 22, the Ministry of Health again recorded an additional 2 new cases of Omicron.

On December 23, there were an additional 3 new cases originating from Indonesian citizens who had recently returned from Malaysia and the Congo.

Furthermore, on December 24, the Ministry of Health again identified 11 additional cases from travelers from Turkey, Japan, South Korea and Saudi Arabia.

The Indonesian Ministry of Health noted that the majority of Omicron cases detected in Indonesia came from international travelers. Therefore, the entry gate of the country, both land, sea and air, is tightened as the Omicron variant expands.

Nadia appealed to the public not to or delay traveling abroad. He also advised the entire community to remain disciplined in implementing the 5M health protocol and immediately participate in the COVID-19 vaccination. (T/RE1)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)