Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin has stated that currently, the Indian and South African mutations of COVID-19 are present in the country.
The government has detected at least two incidents of India’s mutated coronavirus in Jakarta.
“There have been new mutations that have entered, namely mutations from India, with two incidents in Jakarta and one incident for a mutation from South Africa that was found in Bali,” said Budi said.
Previously, according to Budi, there had been 13 mutations of the coronavirus from the UK that entered Indonesia. These mutations are included in the category of variant of concern, or mutations that have received special attention, from the World Health Organisation (WHO).
“Because the transmission is relatively high, we have to keep it contained,” said Budi.
“It is our common duty to immediately isolate those who are identified and be disciplined in conducting tests for contacts from the surrounding area. And also, friends, it’s important to once again wear a mask, wash hands, and maintain distance,” he continued.
In early April, the Health Ministry announced it had found 10 cases of the B117 coronavirus variant that had originated from the UK. These findings are obtained periodically through the Whole Genome Sequence (WGS) method.
“There are 10 B117s. There are two additional cases in West Java and one case in North Sumatra,” said Director of Prevention and Control of Direct Communicable Diseases (P2PML) of the Health Ministry, Siti Nadia Tarmizi.
Nadia said that the two cases in West Java were the result of contact tracing of migrant workers in Karawang who had returned from Saudi Arabia. However, Nadia didn’t specify how many close contacts were traced in the process.
In total, 10 cases of the coronavirus variant from the UK have been identified in Indonesia, with details of three cases in DKI Jakarta, two cases in West Java, two cases in North Sumatra, and one case each in South Sumatra, South Kalimantan and East Kalimantan.
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