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Government shifts to vaccination, treatment as third wave looms
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A health worker prepare to give the Pfizer COVID-19 coronavirus vaccine at a makeshift clinic at the Aceh Museum in Banda Aceh on Jan. 17, 2022. (AFP/Chaideer Mahyuddin)
T
he government has said it will accelerate the national vaccination drive and ensure that hospitals are well-prepared in anticipation of a third wave of COVID-19 infections fueled by the Omicron variant, marking a shift away from mobility curbs in the state’s pandemic mitigation strategy.
Authorities predict that the country will reach the peak of the expected third wave in mid-February or early March.
Coordinating Maritime and Investment Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan, who leads the government’s COVID-19 response in Java and Bali, said the government would take measures to ensure that the wave would not put the country’s healthcare system under excessive pressure.
“The enforcement of health protocols and the acceleration of vaccination are important. And we will make mobility restrictions the last resort,” said Luhut on Sunday.
He added that the government would continue to closely monitor developments in the pandemic situation and that it would assess multi-tiered public activity restrictions (PPKM) on a weekly basis in response to the expected case surge.
While early research has indicated that the symptoms of the Omicron variant tend to be more mild than previous strains, experts have cautioned against a further relaxation of restrictions as the variant’s high transmissibility could still lead to a case surge that overwhelms hospitals.
As of Thursday, Indonesia had confirmed 882 Omicron cases, according to a Health Ministry tally. Some 80 percent of the cases, 710, were detected in people in quarantine after returning from abroad, while 161 cases were the result of local transmission. The remaining 11 cases are still being verified.
