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Indonesia detects first four cases of Omicron subvariants BA.4, BA.5
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Indonesians enjoy the long Idul Fitri holidays with their families at a beach in Banten on May 4, 2022. (AFP/Dziki Oktomauliyadi)
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ndonesia announced on Friday its first cases of the highly contagious Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 as the country starts to see an uptick in transmission following the Idul Fitri holiday season last month, which saw tens of millions of people traveling across the archipelago.
Health Ministry spokesperson Mohammad Syahril said that the ministry had found one case of the BA.4 subvariant and three cases of the BA.5 subvariant, all linked to an international event in Bali.
"The patients, one Indonesian and three foreigners, had all been fully vaccinated, one patient had even been vaccinated four times," Syahril said in a press conference on Friday.
"Three patients are asymptomatic and one is suffering mild symptoms, health authorities have conducted swift tracing and testing of their close contacts," he added.
The BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants were first detected in South Africa earlier this year and so far they have been detected in 58 and 63 countries, respectively.
Preliminary data suggest that they are more contagious compared with the original strain of the Omicron variant and they have contributed to a surge of COVID-19 infections in several countries, including South Africa, Chile and Portugal.
Studies have found that the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants can evade immunity from prior infection and vaccination although there is no evidence indicating that they cause more severe symptoms.
