Epidemiologist: New Variant of Covid-19 Transmitted Faster, Prevent it with Prokes Page all

KOMPAS.com – The expert reminded that the new variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes Covid-19 has the potential to spread more quickly and widely, so that health protocol (prokes) can no longer be negotiated or ignored.

This was conveyed by an Epidemiologist from the Faculty of Public Health, University of Indonesia (FKM UI), Dr. Syahrizal Syarif MPH PhD through a statement from the Committee for Handling Covid-19 and National Economic Recovery (KPCPEN).

Since the end of 2020, a number of countries have reported the emergence of a new variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes Covid-19. Among those countries are Britain, South Africa, Brazil, Russia and Japan.

Also read: New variants of the corona virus continue to emerge, here are 4 known virus mutations

Several variants of the existing Covid-19 virus are reported to have the potential to spread more quickly and widely.

“Our ability to examine the occurrence of various genetic sequences of viruses circulating in Indonesia is still limited,” he said.

Thus, Indonesia, through the Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology, recently reported less than 150 variants of the Covid-19 virus.

Meanwhile, developed countries like Britain have reported tens of thousands of variants to the world genome bank.

Why is the new variant of Covid-19 so contagious?

Syahrizal said, mutation is the ability of the virus to survive, and actually mutation of the virus is a natural thing.

Each virus is not even just SARS-CoV-2, when it infects a host such as human cells, then it will replicate and mutations can occur.

The new Covid-19 variant, which is said to be potentially more contagious, is related to virus mutations that have not occurred in an important part of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

SARS-CoV-2 virus mutations are more common in the horn or spike of the virus.

Syahrizal emphasized that because the mutation occurs not in an important part of the virus, this is a cause for concern, because the virus will be easier to enter the target cells, so transmission will be faster than the old variant.

“Until today, the World Health Organization (WHO) has not received any reports of evidence that the new mutation of the Covid-19 virus has a higher malignancy. Experts also continue to research the impact of this new variant on the protection level of vaccines,” he explained.

“Vaccination does not give rise to new virus variants at all, the ingredients for the vaccine do not encourage mutations,” he said.

However, Syahrizal also emphasized that people are asked not to worry too much about the emergence of new variants, which basically mutations can occur in any country.

“It needs to be supported by the government’s efforts to increase the capacity of genetic sequential examination of viruses circulating in the country,” he said.

Also read: Scientists Remind that Virus Mutations Exacerbate Covid-19, Why?