Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – The Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) confirmed that the new Covid-19 Arcturus variant, aka the Omicron XBB 1.16 subvariant, has been confirmed to enter Indonesia.
“Two cases,” said the Head of the Ministry of Health’s Communication and Public Service Bureau, dr. Siti Nadia Tarmizi, Thursday (13/4/2023).
However, dr. Nadia has not disclosed further regarding which areas the case has been confirmed for.
Previously, Covid-19 Arcturus was thought to be the main cause of the spike in Covid-19 cases in a number of countries, one of which was India. According to a report by the Ministry of Health and the Government of Family Welfare of India, the number of new cases of Covid-19 in the country has reached 5,880 and is suspected to be dominated by the Arcturus subvariant.
Quoted from the Daily Express, a study by scientists at the University of Tokyo found that Covid-19 Arcturus is 1.2 times more infectious than the Kraken strain, which was previously also under the spotlight of the World Health Organization (WHO). They warned that the Arcturus subvariant would spread worldwide in the near future.
Until now, the symptoms of Covid-19 Arcturus are claimed to be the same as those of other Omicron subvariants, namely:
– Fever and chills
– Cough
– Nasal congestion or runny nose
– Headache
– Muscle ache
– Sore throat
(pgr/pgr)
