Indonesia Anticipates Covid-19 Case Hike as New Subvariants Spread in 4 Neighboring Nations
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5 August 2022 12:24 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesia is making efforts to curb new Covid-19 cases after several countries experienced surges in daily transmission. The National Covid-19 Task Force spokesman, Wiku Adisasmito, said that the outbreaks were the result of easing health protocols, allowing the spread of the Omicron BA.2, BA.4, and BA.5 subvariants, which are more transmittable compared to previous variants .
"It is important to learn from the causes of case spikes in other countries, so that we can reflect on it and as much as possible prevent this potential from happening in Indonesia," Wiku said on Friday, August 5.
In Japan, Wiku said, the daily transmission was more than 1 million cases on July 31. This is because summer has prompted the Japanese to go out more and go on trips—both domestic and international.
In South Korea, Covid-19 cases rose by 500,000 after the country reopened international travels and stopped mandating social distancing rules, relying on masks alone. In neighboring Singapore, cases increased by 54,000 cases due to the Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants.
Wiku stated that the Covid-19 Task Force urged the public to keep implementing health protocols. He said that a surge in Covid-19 cases, such as those in the four countries, was still very likely to occur in Indonesia.
On Thursday, August 4, Indonesia reported 5,827 new cases in the last 24 hours. To date, the country has logged more than 6.21 million cases since March 2020.
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