Minister of Health: Omicron Variant Not Detected in Indonesia

Jakarta, MINA – Minister of Health Budi Gunadi Sadikin said on Monday (29/11), until now, the new variant of Covid-19, Omicron has not been detected in Indonesia.

He explained that Indonesia already has a network of laboratories capable of detecting new variants of COVID-19 quickly.

“The world and Indonesia are now much faster and more sophisticated at identifying new variants. It is this new variant that causes the spike. So every time there is an Alpha, Beta, Delta, every time there is a new variant there is always a spike,” he said.

Budi explained that the Omicron variant was first identified by GISAID (Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data) on November 9, 2021. After that, on November 24, 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) determined the status of Variant under Investigation (VuI) and on November 26, 2021 it was upgraded. become the Variant of Concern (VoC). Indonesia then followed up on the status of the Omicron Variant on November 28.

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“Why is this a fast variant of concern (VoC)? Because he has so many mutations and dangerous mutations from the previous variants are here. There are about 50 mutations,” he said

To prevent the entry of the Omicron Variant, the Indonesian government, starting Monday ban the entry of foreign nationals who have a travel history for the last 14 days to eleven countries, namely South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Angola, Namibia, and Hong Kong.

“The policies we make are data-based. So the data from those who have been confirmed and those who are suspected of having confirmation, and we also look at the risk factors for those who have a lot of flights arriving in Indonesia,” he said.

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Closing his statement, the Minister of Health emphasized that the government would tighten all entry routes to the country from land, sea and air.

“We will ensure that all airport, sea and land quarantine offices work hard. Our policy is that all international arrivals will be tested by PCR. If it is positive, it must be in the genome sequence so that we know whether there is a new variant or not,” he concluded. (T/RE1)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)