Indonesia will overcome new wave of COVID-19: official
Indonesia is confident that it can overcome another wave of COVID-19 infections caused by BA.4 and BA.5 sub-variants of Omicron in the context that most of the people in this country already have high antibodies due to a past illness or have been vaccinated.
Medical staff transported a COVID-19 patient to a hospital in Jakarta, Indonesia, on July 9 last year. (Photo: XINHUA/VNA)
Jakarta (VNA) - Indonesia is confident that it canovercome another wave of COVID-19 infections caused by BA.4 and BA.5sub-variants of Omicron in the context that most of the people in this countryalready have high antibodies due to a past illness or have been vaccinated.
The country is ready to handle COVID-19 as a type of endemicdisease no matter what new variant emerges, Indonesian Health Minister BudiGunadi Sadikin said at a press conference.
Referring to the next wave of the pandemic, expected in July, Budi saidthat he believed the pandemic (if it breaks out) will be milder than theprevious wave of transmission due to Delta and Omicron variants.
His confidence stems from the fact that the wave caused byvariants BA.4 and BA.5 – first detected in South Africa – peaked at a lowerlevel than the original Omicron wave. Results of a survey in Marchrevealed that 99.2 percent of Indonesian people had COVID antibodies, a 6percentage point increase from a December survey.
The number of COVID-19 casesin Indonesia is on a downward trend, and the positive test rate is currentlyjust under 5 percent. Meanwhile, the country has also eased most of thepandemic restrictions.
The official expected thatthe wave of infections caused by sub-variants BA.4 and BA.5 will peak in July, but as the level of antibodies in the population remains high, theseverity and hospitalisation rates will decrease.
It is forecast that the new wave of infections will wane in Augustor September and no new variant will emerge, Budi said, adding he expected that thiswill be a "good signal" to shift from the pandemic to endemicdisease. However, he emphasised that Indonesia will continue to accelerate the vaccinationcampaig♛n against COVID-19 while urging people to show responsibility tothemselves by wearing masks, regular testing and isolation if the results turnout positive./.
Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan has confirmed that the government will monitor the development of the COVID-19 pandemic in the subsequent two months before changing the status to endemic.
The peak infection of COVID-19 Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 in Indonesia is forecasted to take place in July, a month after the first case was detected, according to Indonesian Minister of Health Budi Gunadi Sadikin.
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Medical staff transported a COVID-19 patient to a hospital in Jakarta, Indonesia, on July 9 last year. (Photo: XINHUA/VNA) 
