VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

President Joko Widodo assessed that Omicron cases in Indonesia will continue to increase in the next few weeks. Daily cases of the CovidD-19, especially the Omicron variant, continue to experience a spike. Until Sunday (30/1), the government reported daily positive cases of Corona, although most were not the Omicron variant, as many as 12,422. This brings the total active cases to 61,718.

In a press statement last Friday (28/1), he said that the government had made a lot of preparations to deal with this surge by improving various health facilities which are adapted to the character of the Omicron variant.

President Joko Widodo also remarked that all cases of Omicron require health services. The symptoms do seem less serious than the previous variant, but they are still dangerous. Therefore, the most important thing is to minimize contacts with other people. In addition, the President also appealed to the public to always implement health protocols and reduce unnecessary activities.

He emphasized that if the PCR test results are positive even though there are no symptoms, the patients can self-isolate at home for 5 days. If there are symptoms of cough, runny nose, and fever, the patients can access telemedicine services to get free services, including medicines. Thus, health facilities can focus more on treating the patients with severe symptoms as well as the patients with other diseases that require intensive services.

The government did take a different strategy in dealing with the Omicron and Delta variants. In dealing with the Delta variant, the government focuses on providing high hospital capacity, while in dealing with Omicron, the government focuses on self-isolation with telemedicine services. This is because the level of treatment and severity of cases of the Omicron variant is lower.

However, people still need to be vigilant. In Indonesia until last week, it was recorded that three patients died due to this variant. Therefore, the public should follow the President's call to strictly implement the health protocols, and avoid crowds, including on the Lunar or Chinese New Year which is a national holiday on February 1st tomorrow.