We saw that one woman had arrived from England. She had tested positive the first timeJakarta (ANTARA) - A patient, confirmed positive for Omicron and who reportedly escaped from a quarantine facility, had tested negative based on a comparison test, Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin stated.
"We saw that one woman had arrived from England. She had tested positive the first time," the minister noted at a press conference here on Monday.
Sadikin recalled that the patient had requested for a comparative test to reaffirm the results. "It is possible (to take a second test). The test result came negative," he remarked.
On that basis, the patient then requested to leave the quarantine facility to undergo self-isolation at home, he explained.
"The request was then conveyed to the Jakarta Health Office. They said it could be done, though she must be isolated at home, and coincidentally, the house can be used for isolation," he remarked.
Five days later, the test results stated that the woman was positive for Omicron.
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"Hence, we are chasing the woman in question again. We (also) tested her family again, and it turned out to be negative," he remarked.
According to Sadikin, the incident served as a lesson for the Health Ministry that pushed them to change the regulations regarding the COVID-19 comparison test.
"We will change it. If the (first) test result is positive and the second is negative, then there will be a third test. If the third test comes negative, only then it means it is negative. If it is positive, then they must be quarantined at the center," Sadikin emphasized.
The Omicron variant entered Indonesia a while ago. It was first detected in a staff at the Kemayoran Athlete Village's Hospital, with other probable cases coming from some citizens, who recently arrived from overseas travel and foreign nationals, who visited Indonesia.
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Although data from other countries showed that Omicron did not cause as much deaths as its Delta counterpart, the government is still amping up preventive measures, such as imposing stricter security at national borders, calling for more testing and tracing, and expediting vaccination to meet the national target.
Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment, Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, had implored people to spend their vacation time at domestic tourist attractions in order to thwart the surfacing of new Omicron cases as well as to enjoy the local scenery that was no less beautiful than those of foreign tourist attractions.
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Translator: Andi Firdaus, Mecca Yumna
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
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