COVID-19 - JAKARTA. The Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) said that currently 23 countries have reported cases of infection with the Corona virus variant B.1.1.529. This horrendous new variant of the corona virus is popularly known as Omicron.
The Director of Infectious Disease Prevention and Control (P2P) of the Ministry of Health, Siti Nadia Tarmizi, said that a number of countries that had reported cases of the Omicron variant as of December 1, 2021, included the UK, Austria, Italy, Germany and Australia.
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"Currently, as of December 1, 23 countries have reported the presence of the Omicron variant," said Nadia, during a discussion at the Merdeka Barat 9 Forum, quoted from the YouTube channel FMB9ID_IKP, Wednesday (1/12/2021).
Nadia predicts that the number of countries reporting cases of the Omicron variant will increase. However, he asked the public not to worry and continue to increase vigilance by implementing health protocols.
"We also want to convey that we currently have the capacity and system for detecting Covid-19 variants that have been formed from the national to regional levels to monitor new variants," he said.
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Nadia also asked that efforts to find cases of Covid-19 continue to be carried out, starting from tracing close contacts, testing and examining new variants.
"And of course we continue to strive to increase and accelerate vaccination coverage," he said.
The following 23 countries reported the Omicron variant as of 1 December:
- South Africa
- Botswana
- The Netherlands
- UK
- Israel
- Canada
- Hong Kong
- Australia
- Denmark
- Austria
- Italy
- Belgium
- Czech Republic
- Germany
- France
- Switzerland
- Portugal
- Brazil
- Japan
- Reunion Island (France)
- Sweden
- Spain
- Finland
This article has been published on Kompas.com with the title "Ministry of Health Calls Omicron Variants Detected in 23 Countries",
Author : Haryanti Puspa Sari
Editor : Kristian Erdianto
