by Bambang Purwanto
JAKARTA, Mar 6 (NNN-XINHUA) – Indonesia is shocked by the detection of two cases of a new virus variant, right after one year of the COVID-19 outbreak in the country, while the pandemic is still dragging on.
Deputy Minister of Health, Dante Saksono Harbuwono, has confirmed the two cases of the new COVID-19 variant in Indonesia.
“I received information that, right after one year, we found a B117 mutation in Indonesia,” he told a press conference, on Tuesday. “We detected the COVID-19 disease for the first time on Mar 2, 2020.
He said, the two cases new variant were found on Monday evening, meaning, Indonesia would face the pandemic with more difficulties.
Indonesia reported the two cases of the new variant in Karawang district, West Java province. This variant, which was first reported in Britain, is said to be more contagious.
Two women with the initials M and A, tested positive for the B117 coronavirus mutation. They were migrant workers in Saudi Arabia, and arrived in Indonesia at the end of Jan, 2021.
When arriving at Soekarno Hatta Airport in Banten province, M and A conducted a PCR (polymerase chain reaction) swab test, and showed positive for COVID-19 and both of them carried out a 14-day quarantine in Jakarta. Following the second test that showed a negative result, they were allowed to return to Karawang.
West Java Governor, Ridwan Kamil, also confirmed that a new variant had been found in Karawang, and the provincial government is currently conducting contact tracing.
The governor made coordination with universities, to see whether the current health protocols to inhibit the further spread of COVID-19 would also be applicable to persons infected with the new variant.
Kamil asked the people not to panic because anticipatory measures have been taken by the COVID-19 task force.
Indonesian President, Joko Widodo, also called on the people not to be nervous about detection of the virus variant.
“I call on all of you, ladies and gentlemen, not to worry about the finding of the two positive cases of B117,” the president said.
According to the head of state, the two people who were exposed to the new variant of the virus are now confirmed negative for COVID-19.
“And there is no research that shows that this new variant is more deadly,” said the president, emphasising that preventive efforts against the new variant have been carried out.
“For that, let us remain disciplined in running the health programme strictly in line with the accelerated implementation of vaccinations.”
The government ensures that the COVID-19 vaccine, currently used in Indonesia, is still effective against the B117 variant, so that people are expected not to be too worried, and continue to apply health protocols, the government’s spokesman for COVID-19, Wiku Adisasmito, said.
Indonesia has been using the COVID-19 vaccine produced by China’s Sinovac Biotech.
According to Harbuwono, in addition to Sinovac’s vaccine, the government has also obtained commitments to procure vaccines from other pharmaceutical companies, namely AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNTech and Novavax.
All of those vaccines will be used in the country’s national vaccination programme.– NNN-XINHUA
