VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Deputy Minister of Health, Dante Saksono Harbuwono, has predicted that infections caused by the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants of Omicron in Indonesia will pass their peak this week.

“Hopefully, the cases will not increase again in the future because the increase in BA.4 and BA.5 cases is a third of the Omicron cases," he noted during the submission of a presidential decree regarding the BPJS Health Supervisory Board at the Coordinating Ministry for Human Development and Culture’s office in Jakarta on Monday.

As previously known, the Ministry of Health had predicted that COVID-19 cases in Indonesia would peak at around 20 thousand cases per day—a level that was recorded in the second to fourth week of July 2022.

Based on data from the Ministry of Health, as many as 81 percent of COVID-19 cases in Indonesia have been caused by the Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants.

Harbuwono said that the peak of the current coronavirus wave was predicted to have been reached on July 16, 2022. Active cases on that day increased by 1,621, bringing the total to 26,594 cases, while the number of confirmed positive cases increased by 4,329.

The figure was double compared to the end of June 2022, when it was recorded at 2 thousand cases per day.

On July 17, the number of active cases fell to 956, bringing the total to 27,550 cases, with positive confirmed cases pegged at 3,540.

"All slides have increased, but are still in the 10 percent condition from the highest case last month. We estimate that it has reached its peak," Harbuwono stated.

Cases are currently peaking in Jakarta Province, where the transmission rate has reached Level 3, while the nationwide transmission rate is still at Level 1, he added.

"Hopefully, cases in Jakarta will soon decrease. Although the cases are still increasing, but (they are) still in small number," he disclosed. (antaranews)