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New variants expose loopholes in contact tracing
Health authorities continue to map transmission route of local cases of Indian and South African variants amid fears that noncompliance with mudik ban could lead to spread of the new coronavirus types.
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Customers flout the COVID-19 health protocols on July 29, 2020 at a coffee shop in South Tangerang, Banten. (JP/Dhoni Setiawan)
T
he government is as yet unable to determine whether local cases of the Indian and South African coronavirus variants were imported or were somehow transmitted locally, once again displaying the country's persistently poor contact-tracing and containment efforts, over a year into the outbreak.
Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin announced on Monday that authorities had detected two cases of the Indian variant B1617, a single case of the South African variant B1351 and three new cases of the United Kingdom variant B117, bringing Indonesia’s total caseload of UK variants to 13.
The South African and UK variants are both categorized as variants of concern by the World Health Organization as appearing “to spread more easily between people”. Meanwhile, the Indian variant remains a variant of interest amid ongoing studies to determine its characteristics.
Ministerial spokesperson Siti Nadia Tarmizi revealed at a press briefing on Tuesday that one of the two Indian variant cases was a health worker who had exposure to foreign patients, and that authorities were still tracing up to 25 close contacts in the case.
"We still don't know whether the case was locally transmitted or imported because we're still tracing her close contacts, which are [many]. Some of the contacts are foreigners," Nadia said.
Read also: As Indonesia detects India and South Africa variants, fears grow over possible case spikes
This case was discovered in a family cluster in early April, she continued, as the worker's husband and her child had also caught the virus, although it was not disclosed with what variant. All three were in good condition and only required self-isolation, attributing the health worker’s mild symptoms to the fact that she had been vaccinated against COVID-19.
