TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Deputy Health Minister Dante Saksono Harbuwono said the BA.2.75 Omicron subvariant or Centaurus, which was first detected in India, has entered the country.

“There are three cases of BA.2.75. All of them are mild cases, not too serious,” said Dante at the Coordinating Ministry for Human Development and Cultural Affairs HQ, Jakarta, Monday, July 18, 2022.

Dante said the three cases were detected a week ago based on the results of genome sequencing analysis from all patients who were confirmed positive for COVID-19 in the archipelago. According to him, as observed in a number of countries that detected the variant, BA.2.75 has a relatively fast transmission rate but with mild impacts.

“It’s similar to Omicron. It doesn’t cause high emergency, the hospitality rate is not too high, and the severity is not too high,” he explained.

Dante asked the public not to fret about the emergence of the BA.2.75 variant in Indonesia, because it has similar characteristics to BA.4 and BA.5. The findings have also been reported to the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID) for research with other countries.

On another occasion, the Director of the Post-Graduate Program at YARSI University, Prof. Tjandra Yoga Aditama, said there has been no certainty about the ability of Omicron BA.2.75 to escape one’s existing immunity.

“Since it is detected in India, the case has now spread to ten countries. The transmission is quite fast, which reminds us of the previous variant, Delta,” said Yoga.

ANTARA

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