COVID-19 Orthrus Variant Won’t Enter Indonesia, Health Ministry Hopes

VIVA – The Indonesian health ministry reveals the latest data for the development of COVID-19 cases in Indonesia. One is about new variants that have spread in other countries, namely Kraken and Orthrus.

This was revealed by Ministry of Health Spokesperson Mohammad Syahril in a virtual press conference Monday afternoon, on February 20, 2023. Syahril said that Indonesia has not detected the emergence of the Omicron CH.1.1 or Orthrus subvariant. He also hopes that this subvariant won't enter Indonesia.

"There is no subvariant (Orthrus) yet, let's just wait, hopefully, there won't be," said Syahril.

Meanwhile, Syahril revealed that the Omicron XBB.1.5 subvariant has recorded 6 cases in Indonesia. The six cases were recorded from December 2022 to February 2023.

There are also four Kraken cases that show no symptoms even though they are positive for COVID-19. While in the other two cases, they showed mild symptoms and were not dangerous, "Since December there has been 1 patient, on January, there are 5 patients, so a total of 6 patients. And all the symptoms in these patients, 4 of them are asymptomatic and two with mild symptoms," he added.

The domicile of each case was observed to be spread out, where one of them was found in Banten. While one other case is domiciled in East Kalimantan. The remaining four cases are domiciled in DKI Jakarta.

However, the Kraken subvariant that already exists in Indonesia has not spread and caused a spike in cases to a new wave. According to Syahril, one of the factors is the high immunity of the Indonesian people, either from vaccines or having been infected.

"Even though there is such a subvariant as XBB 1.5, we can control it and the Indonesian people can overcome it with immunity and clean and healthy lifestyle behavior," he said.

Previously, the Indonesian Ministry of Health again announced the results of the SARS CoV-2 Serological Survey at the Ministry of Health Building, Jakarta.

As a result, there was an increase in antibodies of people who increased their vaccination status by almost 3 times compared to people who did not change their vaccination status.

"So, it is important to complete the vaccination. Although the results of this survey show that the immunity condition of the Indonesian population is good, we still need to emphasize and complete our vaccination status," said Head of the Health Development Policy Agency, Ministry of Health Syarifah Liza Munira, S.E, M.P.P, Ph.D. at the Press Conference in Jakarta.