TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Coordinating Minister of Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Pandjaitan in a virtual press conference on Sunday said the government is yet to understand the effects of the newly-discovered Covid-19 omicron variant (B.1.1.529) against vaccines and infection-induced immunity.

This variant was first detected in South Africa but was later found to have spread across a number of countries, fortunately, cases have yet been reported from Indonesia.

“With good international cooperation we will need 1-2 weeks ahead to better understand the effects of the omicron variant against vaccines and antibodies formed from viral infections,” said Luhut on Sunday, November 28.

However, Minister Luhut reminded mass media to avert from reporting the new variant “as if it’s the world war. We are still under control but must remain cautious.”

The new Covid-19 variant is said to contain 50 mutations greatly affecting the speed of transmissions and virus’ ability to evade antibodies formed by vaccines or antibodies produced naturally due to infection with previous variants of Covid-19.

This situation has forced the World Health Organization (WHO) to increase the status of this new variant to a variant of concern. Up until November 28, there are 13 countries announcing to have found cases of omicron which among them are Germany, Belgium, Britain, Israel, Australia, and Hong Kong.

Read: Govt Refuses Entry to Travelers from 11 Countries over Omicron Variant

DEWI NURITA