TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The transmissions of the Delta Variant of Coronavirus have been found at Dr. Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital (RSCM) in Central Jakarta. The hospital chief Lies Dina Liastuti said one patient contracting the new Covid-19 strain was treated at the hospital.

RSCM did a screening test to the patient. The person did not show any symptopms and the antigen swab test resulted in negative. But the next day, the patient had a short of breath. Suspicion emerged among the nurses as some of them showed mild symptoms such as fever, cough, and flu, even though they received Covid-19 shots.

"The patient was then tested with the PCR swab, and the test came back positive," Liastuti told Tempo Friday, June 18.

The hospital sent 10 samples to Agency of Health Research and Development of the health Ministry for the whole genome sequencing (WGS) test.

Seven samples were from the nurses, one from the patient suspected to be infected with the Delta variant, and two other samples were from two other patients staying in the same room with the patient in question.

"The outbreak can be so quick that several people were infected at the same time in a short period of time," said the RSCM chief.

The three patients infected with the Delta variant have been moved to special Covid-19 unit at RSCM. Meanwhile, 1 nurse is treated in the hospital, 3 were brought to Wisma Atlet, and the rest conducting self-isolation at their homes.

"It was that one patient that brought the Delta variant virus into RSCM," said Liastuti.

Jakarta previously logged 33 cases of new covid variants, namely 12 Alpha variant cases, 3 Beta variant cases, and 18 Delta variant cases.

The RSCM Chief explained that the Delta variant is highly transmissive. The patient in concern, at first, showed no Covid-19 symptoms.

She called on the people to maintain the health protocols by wearing masks, washing hands, physical dystancing, reducing mobility, avoiding crowds, and refraining from having meal with large group of people.

Read: Patients Infected by Delta Variant in Indonesia Show Mild Symptoms: Eijkman

Lani Diana Wijaya