Indonesia Gears up to Anticipate Covid-19 XBB Subvariant

The government has reported that the Omicron XBB subvariant of Covid-19 has yet to be detected in the country. This subvariant was first detected in August 2022 in India.

KOMPAS/PRIYOMBODO

A crowd of visitors enjoying a musical performance at the Sarinah courtyard, Central Jakarta, Saturday (11/6/2022). The government has reported that the Omicron XBB subvariant of Covid-19 has yet to be detected in the country. However, greater vigilance was needed.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS – The Health Ministry has reported that the Omicron XBB subvariant of Covid-19 has yet to be detected in the country. However, greater vigilance was needed, especially at border crossings, to prevent the subvariant from entering and causing a spike in Covid-19 cases, as has been seen in other countries.

The Omicron XBB subvariant was first detected in August 2022 in India. Since then, at least 17 countries have reported the subvariant, including Singapore, Australia, Bangladesh, Denmark, Japan and the United States.

The website of the Singaporean Health Ministry states that the XBB subvariant had led to a spike in Covid-19 cases across the country. It also states that Omicron XBB is now the dominant subvariant in Singapore.

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The Indonesian Health Ministry’s disease prevention and management director, Maxi Rein Rondonuwu, said in Jakarta on Tuesday (18/10/2022) that there were no reports of the XBB subvariant entering Indonesia. However, anticipatory measures had been taken, such as increased surveillance of international arrivals at the country’s points of entry.

“We have increased surveillance at points of entry, especially at Soekarno-Hatta airport and seaports in Batam, which are directly adjacent to Singapore. For foreign travelers arriving with positive results of PCR [polymerase chain reaction] tests from countries that have detected XBB, WGS [whole genome sequencing] will be carried out,” he said.

BIRO PERS SEKRETARIAT PRESIDEN/LAILY RACHEV

President Joko Widodo saw the first injection of the Covid-19 vaccine made by Bio Farma, IndoVac, at the PT Bio Farma (Persero) Factory, Bandung City, West Java Province, Thursday (13/10/2022).

According to Maxi, the Health Ministry had issued an alert for the new subvariant. The heads of all port health offices and environmental health and disease control technical centers in the country had been alerted to anticipate the XBB subvariant.

Whatever the variant, prevention measures through the health protocols remain the same.

Health MInistry spokesman Mohammad Syahril said the emergence of new subvariants was a natural process as the virus continued to mutate to survive. Viral mutations typically had a lower transmission rate compared to their predecessors.

Even so, vigilance was still needed to prevent and control the disease. “Whatever the variant, prevention measures through the health protocols remain the same. [The vaccination policy] also remains the same. The public must also continue to be vigilant, as we are still in a pandemic,” he said.

Bivalent vaccine

Separately, postgraduate program director Tjandra Yoga Aditama at Jakarta’s YARSI University said that bivalent Covid-19 vaccines could be used to anticipate the spread of the Omicron XBB subvariant. A number of countries, including Singapore and Australia, were providing bivalent vaccine jabs for their people.

According to him, bivalent vaccines are different from the vaccines currently available in Indonesia. Bivalent vaccines are the most recently developed type of Covid-19 vaccine, and can protect against both the early SARS-CoV-2 variants as well as the latest Omicron subvariants.

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“It would be good if we also considered the use of bivalent vaccines now,” said Tjandra.

According to the Singaporean Health Ministry website, the Moderna and Spikevax bivalent vaccines have been available in that country since 14 Oct. 2022. These vaccines are being administered to people who do not have minimum protection, such as people aged 50 years and over who were vaccinated more than five months ago.

Vaccination is the main defense against Covid-19. On the other hand, it is feared that people’s immunity has declined over time, so vaccination coverage needs to be increased.

This article was translated by Kesya Adhalia.