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Govt confident in Omicron response, urges discipline
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One shot counts: A little girl receives a Sinovac vaccine jab at Sumatera Utara University Hospital in Medan on Dec. 30, 2021. The government is intensifying vaccination for children aged 6-11 years old against COVID-19. (Antara/Fransisco Carolio)
T
he government has played down the threat of the more transmissible Omicron strain of COVID-19, with officials suggesting that the situation in the country remains under control despite an uptick in pandemic indicators.
However, they also insist that the public should remain disciplined in following health protocols, underscoring the role of the masses in ensuring success in the pandemic response.
Health authorities reported 75 new cases of the Omicron variant on Saturday, bringing the total tally of Omicron cases to 414, with 31 of these being reported as cases of local transmission.
This came amid an increase in overall COVID-19 figures, with Indonesia recording more than 500 daily cases on a couple of occasions in the past week. The seven-day moving average of infection has also jumped by 100 percent compared with the previous week, a Health Ministry report revealed on Saturday.
Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister Luhut Pandjaitan, who heads the pandemic control in Java and Bali, said on Monday that Indonesia, however, was still on top of its COVID-19 situation because the spike in cases was down to international arrivals. Many of them, he said, had tested positive upon entering the country.
According to the Health Ministry report, the country welcomed over 790,000 international arrivals from Jan. 1 to Friday. Of these arrivals, some 21,000 had tested positive for COVID-19. It remains unclear how many of the cases are Omicron infections.
Read also: Government urges people not to travel abroad as goal of reaching endemic status in sight
