"This is a new cluster, as the carriers of COVID-19 are all the fishing firm's workers," Kepulauan Aru District Head Johan Gonga informed ANTARA during a telephonic interview from Ambon on Tuesday.
The workers contracted the infection at the workplace after one of their workmates died of COVID-19, he remarked, adding that local health workers had undertaken prevention and mitigation efforts to tackle the situation.
The health workers had conducted massive rapid COVID-19 antigen testing and contact tracing to halt the spread of the novel coronavirus disease inside the fishing firm, he remarked.
In 2015, the PBR had also grabbed the attention of local and foreign media outlets after this fishing firm, one of the largest in eastern Indonesia, got embroiled in slavery and human trafficking cases.
Over the past few weeks, Jakarta and several other provinces across Indonesia have witnessed an alarming resurgence of COVID-19 cases amid the government's ongoing vaccination drives.
In flattening the COVID-19 curve, Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan has urged local residents to abstain from frequent travel.
Meanwhile, President Joko Widodo earlier highlighted the necessity for state institutions and all levels of government to be on the same wavelength in response to the alarming resurgence of cases.
Such a fast and appropriate response necessitates state institutions, the central government, and regional governments to be on the same frequency, he recently emphasized.
The COVID-19 pandemic initially struck the Chinese city of Wuhan in 2019 and thereafter spread across the world, including to nations in the Asia-Pacific region.
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The Indonesian government announced the nation's first confirmed cases on March 2, 2020.
Since then, the central and regional governments have striven incessantly to flatten the nation's coronavirus curve by applying healthcare protocols and social restrictions.
As part of the efforts to win the fight against COVID-19, the Indonesian government has also been conducting a nationwide vaccination program to contain infections since January 13, 2021.
Indonesia recently received 10 million doses of bulk vaccines from China's Sinovac.
As of June 20, 2021, the nation had received 104,728,400 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, comprising 94.5 million Sinovac vaccines, 8.228 million AstraZeneca vaccines, and two million Sinopharm vaccines.
Related news: 13.3 million Indonesians fully vaccinated against COVID-19
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Translator: Jimmy A, Rahmad Nasution
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
Copyright © ANTARA 2021
