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Government downplays threat of rising COVID-19 cases, Arcturus strain
While the Health Ministry said that a recent uptick in the daily caseload and five new Arcturus cases were nothing to worry about, it still urged holiday travelers to take precautionary measures, including making sure their vaccinations were up-to-date.
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Travelers board a train on April 5, 2023 at Tasikmalaya Station in Tasikmalaya, West Java. Two weeks before Idul Fitri, which falls on April 20 and 21, the regency station recorded that people traveling to and from the provincial capital of Bandung accounted for the largest proportion of passengers. (Antara/Adeng Bustomi)
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recent uptick in the country’s daily COVID-19 caseload and the discovery of more people infected with the new Arcturus strain are no cause for concern just yet, the Health Ministry has said, but it also urged the public to take health precautions ahead of the Idul Fitri holiday.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, ministerial spokesman Mohammad Syahril said authorities had found five new cases linked to Arcturus (XBB.1.16), a subvariant of Omicron. This brought the nationwide tally to seven following the two cases that were announced last week, but were detected in late March.
Syahril said one of the first two Arcturus cases had traveled to India, while the other was infected in Indonesia. Both cases were detected in Jakarta and had since tested negative.
Meanwhile, of the five new cases announced on Monday, three are Jakarta residents and the other two are from Surabaya, East Java.
“They are all showing only mild symptoms,” Syahril added.
The five new Arcturus cases come amid a slight uptick in the daily caseload.
Indonesia has been reporting more than 900 new cases a day since April 11 and surpassed 1,000 cases on Friday. The last time the country reported more than 1,000 cases was on Dec. 22, some four months ago.
