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THE MINISTER of Health, Budi Gunadi Sadikin, said the omicron variant of the corona virus could infect people who have been vaccinated. On the other hand, this new variant most likely did not cause severe symptoms in patients.
Budi explained that every time a new variant appears, WHO usually measures three indicators. The rate of transmission, the severity of the resulting symptoms, and the ability to penetrate antibodies/immunity.
He said the omicron variant has been scientifically proven to infect people who already have antibodies against the corona virus. Whether it’s people who have antibodies because they have been infected before or because they have been vaccinated.
“This new variant (omicron) can escape immunity, can pass, can penetrate, immunity that is formed either through vaccination or infection. This means that people who have been vaccinated can get it again,” Budi said in an online discussion recently.
On the indicator of the level of transmission, continued Budi, the Omicron variant is much higher than the Delta variant. This has also been scientifically proven. “In fact, this Omicron liquid is higher than Delta, whose transmission rate is much higher than the initial variant in Wuhan,” said Budi. The delta variant was the cause of the second wave of COVID-19 cases in the country last July.
Furthermore, on the indicator of symptom severity, according to Budi, the omicron variant is not yet known with certainty the severity of the symptoms because it is still in the research process. However, it is likely that this new variant causes only mild symptoms.
Budi explained that the possibility of a low severity of illness can be seen from what happened in South Africa at the beginning of the spread of the Omicron variant there. In November 2021, only a few patients infected with omicron had to be hospitalized or died.
However, Budi continued, now there are more patients infected with omicron entering hospitals in South Africa, even more than patients infected with the delta variant. However, the mortality rate due to Omicron is still small.
“That’s why the severity of the symptoms is most likely lower. But this is not certain. We still have to wait for the data in about 4-6 weeks to see exactly what it looks like,” said Budi.
In Indonesia, so far 19 cases have been detected with the omicron variant. A total of 18 patients of whom were people who had just come from abroad. The Ministry of Health ensures that this variant has not spread in the community, aka community transmission has not occurred. [antaranews/photo special]
