TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Deputy Health Minister Dante Saksono Harbuwono said a new variant of Covid-19 had been detected in Indonesia. This variant is a mutation of Sars-CoV-2 which was first discovered in England.

“I received information last night that exactly one year [after the first case of coronavirus disease detected in Indonesia] today, we have detected a B117 UK virus mutation in Indonesia. This is 'fresh from the oven’, as two cases were just in last night,” said Dante when giving a speech at the Ministry of Research and Technology event broadcasted via YouTube on Tuesday, March 2.

Dante concluded that this means Indonesia is facing an increasingly severe pandemic. The government had reviewed 462 positive cases throughout the country that were suspected as cases of the virus mutation for the last few months. The result showed that there were two cases.

“This reflection brings new challenges in the future for us to develop research-related processes faster, better treatment models, and analytical epidemiological studies, because this mutation process is already around us,” Dante remarked.

This Covid-19 virus mutation was originally discovered in New South Wales and was then found in several other European countries and Australia.

Read: Indonesia Needs Two More Years to Fight COVID-19: Epidemiologist

EGI ADYATAMA