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Indonesia prepares for yet another COVID-19 wave
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Residents and visitors enjoy the Idul Fitri holiday at a beach in Banten on May 4. (AFP/Dziki Oktomauliyadi)
H
ealth authorities are bracing for the possibility of another wave of COVID-19 infections following the detection of the country’s first local transmissions of the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants of Omicron.
The two subvariants are reportedly more highly transmissible than the Omicron variant and have spread to at least a dozen countries, including South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Indonesia has seen an uptick in COVID-19 cases over the past three weeks, with the weekly caseload doubling from 1,800 cases at the end of May to 3,600 cases this week. The number of active cases has also more than doubled over the same period, from 2,900 to 6,007 cases.
On Wednesday, the country reported 1,242 new cases of COVID-19, the highest since April.
National COVID-19 spokesperson Wiku Adisasmito said several factors had contributed to the recent surge in cases, including increased public mobility, poor discipline in following the health protocols and the spread of new Omicron subvariants.
"As of now, we cannot determine the exact reason for the uptick in cases. However, over the past five weeks, we have been seeing an increase in public mobility as activities have slowly returned to normal. We have also observed that a lot of people have started to lower their guard against the virus," Wiku said at a press conference on Tuesday.
The government has relaxed COVID-19 rules to an unprecedented level following a dip in infections after the Omicron-fueled third wave in January and February.
