Covid-19 Cluster in Kudus May Indicate New Variant: Health Deputy Minister
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10 June 2021 19:55 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Health Deputy Minister Dante Saksono Harbuwono argued that the spike in Covid-19 cases in Kudus Regency, Central Java, could be regarded as an indicator of the emergence of a new coronavirus variant.
“Massive and rapid virus transmission can also be one of the indicators of the existence of a new variant,” said Dante on Thursday, June 10.
Kudus Regency has recorded a dramatic surge of cases to nearly 2,000. The figure was far higher than the government’s prediction of around 200 cases that might be discovered after the Eid holiday.
Dante said it is necessary to monitor possible mutated SARS-CoV-2 occurring from the Kudus cluster, given similar characteristics of virus mutation from India and the United Kingdom which spreads faster and massively.
“There is a tendency [for the virus] to spread faster as a mutated virus from India and the U.K. The virus mutation allows a more dramatic rate of transmission compared to normal mutation," he said.
Dante also said that Indonesia has 17 laboratories capable of conducting genome sequencing tests to detect new variants of Covid-19. To date, 65 cases of coronavirus mutations and new variants of SARS-CoV-2 have been detected in the archipelago.
Read: Mutated Coronavirus Spreads 3 Times Faster, Says Health Ministry
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