The return of pilgrims may trigger an increase in Covid-19 cases.
The Minister of Health, Budi Gunadi Sadikin predicts that the peak of cases of the Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants will occur after July 2022. The reason is that there are still pilgrims returning home which may trigger a significant increase in Covid-19 cases.
"With the return of the hajj pilgrims, it may change somewhat (from July) because indeed the hajj pilgrims are arriving and some are also affected," said the Minister of Health at Dharmais Hospital, Jakarta, Tuesday (19/7/2022).
The Minister of Health has not been able to say for sure whether the daily cases of Covid-19 at its peak will exceed the 20 thousand mark in line with the finding of the BA.2.57 omicron subvariance.
This is because the government is still looking at the pattern of distribution of the new omicron subvariant, including the possibility of similar transmissions such as BA.4 and BA.5 which are believed to have faster transmission characteristics.
"We are still keeping the BA.2.75 subvariant for the time being, because the BA.2.75 is the most in India, yes, we have indeed met three, one person in Bali and two people in Jakarta. But until now we haven't seen the pattern how fast it rises compared to BA.4 and BA.5. For now, we can see that BA.4 and BA.5 are still higher," said Budi.
Previously, Budi said, there were already 15 other countries besides Indonesia that were exposed to this variant originating from India. Currently, his party is still investigating further the main source of the variant, it is suspected that there has been a local transmission after entering Indonesia. (Ministry of Health, antara)
