JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com – Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said cases were on the rise COVID-19 This happened not due to the movement of the company, but due to the emergence of a new subvariant of the crown.
According to Budi, this has been demonstrated at various times. At the time of Eid Al-Fitr, the G20 event, as long as there was no crowd watching football together, there was no peak in cases.
The peak of cases actually occurred when the body’s immunity declined 6 months after vaccination against Covid-19.
“In a way scientific the spike in cases wasn’t actually caused by human movement, but by the presence of a new variant. As soon as there is a new variant and the condition of people’s immunity is not ready, there will be a surge,” Budi said when he met at Muhammadiyah Da’wah Center Building, Central Jakarta on Tuesday (3/12 /2022).
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Budi said the Indonesian people’s immunity was very strong because it was formed from a combination of vaccinations and naturally occurring infections. He said people’s immunity in Indonesia was better than in China.
when it appears subvariant new Covid-19the antibodies in people’s bodies are already able to fight off the virus.
Therefore, there is no increase in Covid-19 cases as is currently happening in China.
He also revealed that this stronger immunity was reflected in the absence of a significant increase in cases over the past 10 months.
“Alhamdulillah compared to many countries, there has not been a significant increase in cases in the last 10 months. Countries in Europe, Asia like Japan, Singapore and even China are experiencing a spike in cases,” she said.
In addition to the high immunity, the absence of an increase in domestic cases was also influenced by the identification of mutations of the Sars Cov-2 virus. Budi said early detection of the Covid-19 mutation was done at the WGS laboratory.
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Before Covid-19 became a pandemic, there were only 8 laboratories. These laboratories are concentrated on the island of Java and some of them are not active. The laboratory capacity is only 15 sequences per month.
When Budi was appointed minister in December 2020, he started building a network so that there was much more identification of mutations.
“In 1 year and 6 months, we built the network. We now have 17 labs spread across Indonesia, with a capacity of 4,000-5,000 per month, compared to 15 sequences. God willing by the end of the year, there will be 20 labs across Indonesia,” Budi said.
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