VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Jakarta Vice Governor Ahmad Riza Patria has said he will check the veracity of a recent report about four Jakarta residents being exposed to the Omicron variant of COVID-19.

“So, we will check and study the information. The health office has also followed up on it and we will make public the result later on,” he said here on Wednesday.

The vice governor said he will coordinate with the Jakarta Health Office to check the information.

Information on the spread of the coronavirus is very important for the Jakarta provincial government to prevent its transmission, he added.

“Such information is important for us to pass it on to the relevant agencies to respond to it,” he explained.

Earlier, chief of the Bekasi District Health Office, Sri Enny Mainiarti, had said that four Jakarta residents had been exposed to the Omicron variant of COVID-19.

It is believed they were exposed to the new variant of COVID-19 while traveling abroad, Mainiarti added.

They were confirmed positive for the new variant based on a sample test at a laboratory in West Cikarang, Bekasi district, the official said.

However, COVID-19 vaccination spokesperson for the Health Ministry Siti Nadia Tarmizi said the report on Omicron variant cases in Bekasi, West Java, was unfounded.

“That is not true. No Omicron variant case has been found in Indonesia so far,” she said on Wednesday.

She said the Health Ministry has verified the information with the laboratory in West Cikarang.  (Antaranews)