"This pandemic needs to be handled more seriously so it doesn't lead to a situation like what happened in India," said head of the PDPI’s Infection Working Group, Erlina Burhan, when contacted by ANTARA here on Monday.
According to Burhan, a pulmonologist at the Persahabatan Hospital, a number of new coronavirus variants imported from India have now spread in Indonesia.
One of these variants is the Delta variant, which can be more contagious and cause more severe symptoms than the earlier virus variant, she pointed out. The Delta variant has also been reported to reduce the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines, she added.
"Among the typical symptoms caused by this Delta variant are sneezing, flu, coughing, and runny nose. If the patient sneezes, the droplets will fall and produce aerosols. If other people who are not wearing masks pass through the patient's area sneezing (are in the vicinity of the sneezing patients), then there is a possibility that the SARS-CoV-2 virus contained in the air around the area will be inhaled," she said.
The spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and its new variants, such as D614G and P1, is currently increasing, she disclosed.
Another risk is that immunization coverage in Indonesia is still below 10 percent of the target, she said.
"The vaccination should have reached 180 million by now. But, in fact, the complete dose of the vaccination has not reached 13 million. There are still many people who are susceptible to infection. Especially with the risk of transmission of the Delta variant," she cautioned.
Indonesia is behind India in terms of its testing capacity for COVID-19, Burhan noted.
"But their (hospital services) fall into the category of collapse. If Indonesia's testing and tracing capacity is low, we could be faced with a situation like what happened in India," she warned.
Meanwhile, Professor of Pulmonology and Respiratory Medicine at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Indonesia (FKUI) Tjandra Yoga Aditama has said Indonesia has adequate testing capacity.
"In comparison, India also increased the number of testing to 2 million tests per day, 10 times higher than the WHO recommendation," he pointed out.
What needs to be emphasized is that the COVID-19 positivity rate in India in May, 2021 was higher than 20 percent and has now fallen sharply to around 3 percent, he said.
"Based on the report as of June 26, 2021, the number of tests in Indonesia is 98,274, while we know that the total population of Indonesia is about a quarter of the total population of India," he observed.
Based on data compiled on Saturday (June 26, 2021), the COVID-19 positivity rate in Indonesia has reached 19.8 percent.
"Based on the PCR test, the positive rate was recorded as very high -- around 37 percent. While the positive rate based on the antigen test is only 1 percent," Aditama said.
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Translator: Andi Firdaus, Katriana
Editor: Sri Haryati
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