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Delta variant behind Kudus COVID-19 spike, officials say
Central Governor Ganjar Pranowo confirmed the presence of the Delta variant of COVID-19 that was first found in India, which has since spread through several parts of Indonesia including several regencies in Central Java.
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A resident passes by a closed road in Pedawang village, Kudus regency, Central Java on June 1. Authorities put 42 villages across the regency on local lockdown due to a surge on COVID-19 cases detected across Kudus after the Idul Fitri holiday in May. (Antara/Yusuf Nugroho)
T
he spike in COVID-19 cases following last month’s Idul Fitri holidays continues to surge in a number of regions in the country, chief among them in Kudus, Central Java.
The region attracted nationwide concern after reporting almost 930 new cases in the course of one week, from May 24-30, a 30-fold increase from 26 cases throughout the previous week.
The trend has continued, as the regency recorded a 7,594 percent increase in cases over the course of three weeks following the Islamic national holiday.
According to regency data, Kudus had 2,091 active cases as of Monday.
In light of the surge in cases, Central Java Governor Ganjar Pranowo confirmed on Sunday the presence of the B.1.617.2, or Delta, variant of the virus (previously known as the Indian variant) in Kudus, the first regency to detect the variant in the province.
The variant is known to have infected 62 people in the regency, as revealed through whole genome sequencing tests conducted following the Idul Fitri case surge.
"Of the 72 samples that have been tested, the results found that 62 samples or 86.11 percent of COVID-19 patients from Kudus were detected with the Indian strain [Delta] B.1,617.2," Ganjar said on Sunday, as quoted by Kompas.com.
