The covid-19 cases in Indonesia are showing a significant upward trend. Until now, the positive number has touched 2000 cases per day. Therefore, Minister of Health Budi Gunadi gave the explanation regarding the increase.
According to Health Minister Budi Gunadi, the increase in cases could not be separated from the decisions of several countries to relax health protocol policies.
“The results of discussions with epidemiologists, this is due to lack of vigilance from several countries and too hasty to relax health protocols and vaccinations,” he said at a press conference, as quoted on Tuesday (5/7/2022).
according to Budi, Indonesia’s condition is still much better than that of other countries. The former Deputy Minister of SOEs claimed that the Indonesian people were much more disciplined in implementing health protocols and intensively vaccinating.
“Health protocols that have been set by the government are to continue to use masks indoors, or there are crowds or unhealthy body conditions and we are free not to use masks in open spaces, we have consistently implemented them,” he said.
On the other hand, President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) previously estimated that the peak of Covid-19 cases in the country was triggered by the transmission of the Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariant corona viruses would occur starting next week.
This was stated by Jokowi when giving directions in a limited meeting with the ministers on the topic of discussing the evaluation of policies for the implementation of restrictions on community activities (PPKM).
“We know that as of July 3, there were 1,614 cases and it is predicted that the peak of cases will be in July, in the second or third week,” said Jokowi.
Therefore, the Government itself appeals to the public not to panic over the increase in cases that have occurred in recent times caused by the Omicron virus variants BA.4 and BA.5.
Furthermore, Deputy Chair III of the National Covid-19 Handling Task Force, Safrizal ZA, in his official statement stated that the two variants had a peak period that was faster than the previous variants.
“The study from the Ministry of Health shows that the peak of cases of COVID-19 variants BA.4 and BA.5 is around 30% and 50% lower than cases of the Omicron variant with mild symptoms,” said Safrizal.
The two subvariants are believed to be the cause of the skyrocketing positive number in various agglomeration areas such as Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, and Bekasi so some of these areas have returned to PPKM level 2 status.
“The public does not need to panic, but still reduce vigilance in implementing strict health protocols, especially wearing masks in closed rooms,” said Safrizal.
