By: Alfisyah Dianasari )*
The emergence of the Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants is suspected to be the mastermind behind the increase in positive cases of COVID-19 in recent weeks. All elements of society are also asked to work together to fight the Covid-19 pandemic that is still happening by always implementing strict Prokes in their activities.
It is undeniable that although Indonesia is one of the countries in ASEAN that has the best level of handling the COVID-19 pandemic, in fact this pandemic itself is still not really over. The proof is that until now the World Health Organization (WHO), which is the reference in the world of health, has not revoked the pandemic status. In addition, in some countries the level of Covid-19 is still not well controlled, so they are still doing a lockdown.
Moreover, it has recently been reported that there are new subvariants of the Covid-19 Omicron, namely BA.4 and BA.5 which are said to have started to enter Indonesia. This then made Vice President Ma’ruf Amin state to the entire community to continue to increase their vigilance and continue to be careful.
Strictly speaking, the Vice President appealed that the health protocol should continue to be carried out by the entire community obediently. Furthermore, he did not want a bad possibility to happen, namely the skyrocketing Covid-19 cases in the country. For this reason, according to him, vigilance should really be re-emphasized on the whole community.
In line with what was stated by Vice President Ma’ruf Amin, DKI Jakarta DPRD Member Hardiyanto Kenneth stated to the public to continue to follow the recommendations given by the Government regarding efforts to minimize the transmission of Covid-19, namely by complying with health protocols. Even so, the news of the discovery of the Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants should not be overreacted to cause panic.
Furthermore, Hardiyanto appealed to the entire community to continue carrying out their activities as usual. Although he appealed to the public to carry out activities as usual, he said not to let the public be unwary because the positive confirmation of Covid-19 from the new subvariance in fact has continued to increase in Indonesia. At least the number of updates since Saturday, June 11, 2022, has increased to 574.
As circulating data, the highest cases of Covid-19 are still in the Capital City of DKI Jakarta with a total of 314, which is then followed by West Java with 92 cases and also Banten which has 71 cases. Increasing vigilance is indeed mandatory because in Jakarta itself, since the last few days, daily infection cases have increased quite significantly.
Hardiyanto suspects that the main factor why the Omicron subvariant can enter and there is an increase in Covid-19 cases, especially in Jakarta, is because people have started to look careless so they are very free to interact and even often take off their masks. Not only that, but according to him, in fact, not 100 percent of the people have vaccinated against Covid-19 until the third dose.
On another occasion, the Minister of Health (Menkes) Budi Gunadi Sadikin gave a prediction that Indonesia itself would experience the peak of the Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariance cases in the second or third week of July 2022. This prediction reflects on how when a new variant was first discovered, then it took at least a month for the cases to peak.
It should be noted that the first detection of the discovery of the Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants reportedly started in Bali with the discovery of 4 cases, which consisted of three foreign nationals (WNA) and one other person who was an Indonesian citizen (WNI). .
The public must return to comply with strict health protocols. In addition, if there are those who feel that they have not done a complete Covid-19 vaccination, they can immediately ask for it at the nearest health facility. With the compliance and concern of all parties, the prediction of a spike in Covid-19 cases in July 2022 can be avoided.
)* The author is a contributor to the Nusa Bangsa Institute
