Omicron Cases Continue to Rise

KOMPAS/ERIKA KURNIA

A banner containing information on the lockdown area at the barrier of tower 2 of the Kemayoran Athlete Hospital, Central Jakarta, Tuesday (21/12/2021). This place was locked down because there were cases of Covid-19 patients with the Omicron variant.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS — The global spread of the Omicron variant seems unstoppable and many countries are seeing local transmission. Indonesia has also confirmed an increase to five Omicron cases from three cases previously.

The five confirmed Omicron cases in Indonesia were identified through the GISAID virus genome data center. Indonesia has uploaded five genome sequences of the Omicron variant in the last four weeks, or about 2.6 percent of all reports of the variant submitting in that period.

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The Health Ministry’s infectious diseases prevention and control director, Siti Nadia Tarmizi, confirmed the five Omicron cases when contacted on Tuesday (21/12/2021). "All [cases] are in Jakarta," she said.

Three Omicron cases had been confirmed earlier on 15 Dec. One case is a cleaner at the Athletes Village Emergency Hospital who has no history of traveling abroad. The two other cases had arrived from abroad.

The Health Ministry is currently waiting for the test results of a number of suspected Omicron cases, including three Chinese citizens who are quarantined in Manado, North Sulawesi. Suspected cases are usually detected through a polymerase chain reaction (PCR)test to detect S gene target failure (SGTF).

KOMPAS/AGUS SUSANTO

Travelers from Hungary wait for their vehicles after undergoing a 10-day health quarantine at the Pasar Rumput Flats, South Jakarta, Tuesday (21/12/2021). The government requires international travelers to carry out a PCR swab test upon arrival, quarantine for 10 days, a second PCR retest on the 9th day of quarantine, and quarantine for 14 days specifically for foreigners who arrive from 11 countries where the Omicron variant community transmission is located.

In addition, Nadia said, hundreds of direct contacts of the Omicron cases were still being traced, with 60 people known to have tested positive for Covid-19. However, the variant that had infected the 60 people was not yet known.

Data from the Indonesian Genome Surveillance Network show that the country has submitted 10,384 whole genome sequencing (WGS) data to GISAID. The Delta variant still dominates the specimens analyzed using WGS at 5,985 specimens, or 57.64 percent.

Supervision obstacles

Efforts to tighten supervision at border checkpoints, especially on land and sea routes, such as in North Kalimantan, have encountered problems. The North Kalimantan provincial administration has been unable to fully implement quarantine measures for Indonesian migrant workers reentering the country from Malaysia via multiple routes.

The North Kalimantan Covid-19 Task Force spokesperson, Agust Suwandy, said the difficulty was in delivering swab samples for PCR tests. Samples from Krayan in Nunukan regency must be sent to Tarakan Island or Nunukan Island. If the test returned a positive and had a cycle threshold (CT) value below 25, the sample must then be sent to the National Research and Development Agency (Balitbangkes) in Jakarta. It took more than two weeks to receive the test results, he said.

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YARSI University postgraduate director Tjandra Yoga Aditama, who is a former infectious diseases director of at the World Health Organization (WHO) Southeast Asia, said that the global spread of the Omicron variant, which had been reported to nearly 100 countries in the world, was unstoppable.

He called on the Health Ministry to immediately identify the extent of community transmission to prevent further spread of Omicron in the country. He also recommended that health facilities be alerted, and that health workers, drugs, and medical equipment be prepared.

"The public must also be prepared on what must be done in the event of an increase in cases, including the detection of clusters," he said.

This article was translated by Hyginus Hardoyo.