TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Deputy Health Minister Dante Saksono Harbuwono said the Covid-19 Mu variant had not yet been detected in Indonesia. “We have carried out genome sequencing on 7,000 people throughout Indonesia and no Mu variant has been detected yet,” said Dante in an online press conference in Jakarta, Monday, September 6.

According to him, the new variant was first discovered in Colombia. Based on the laboratory data, the variant is resistant to the vaccines. “But that is not in an epidemiological context,” Dante added.

The longer the pandemic lasts and case numbers grow, he opined, the virus will continue to mutate. He hoped that the Mu variant would disappear like the Lambda variant that occurred some time ago in Peru.

According to him, the decline in Covid-19 cases in Indonesia was an opportunity to strengthen medical resilience in the country. “We must not take off guard as the cases decline. This is time for us to strengthen medical resilience,” said Dante.

Hospitals must improve service quality, optimize the protocols, and re-evaluate Covid-19 treatment properly. “So that in the future, when we face severe cases, we will get a better protocol,” Dante said of anticipation of the Covid-19 Mu variant.

Read: Health Ministry Watches over COVID-19 Mu Variant

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