Bandung, West Java (ANTARA) - Four Bandung residents who have been confirmed positive for the Omicron variant of COVID-19 belong to the same family, the Bandung District Health Office in West Java informed on Monday.

The four patients returned recently from a country that has reported Omicron cases, Head of the Bandung District Health Office Grace Mediana said.

"The one family has been isolated at Al Ihsan Hospital," Mediana informed.

The four patients underwent quarantine at Wisma Atlet COVID-19 Emergency Hospital in Jakarta for 14 days and self-isolated for 10 days in Bandung, she said.

Thereafter, they re-took the PCR and whole-genome sequencing (WGS) tests at West Java Health Laboratory, she informed.

The test results showed that they had been infected with the Omicron variant, she said adding, the four patients are currently undergoing isolation at Al-Ihsan General Hospital (RSUD) in Bandung district.

Mediana assured that the four patients were in a good condition and expressed the hope that there would be no further transmission of Omicron in Bandung.

"The result got better and hopefully, there would be no impact on the (COVID-19) spread," she added.

Meanwhile, Governor Ridwan Kamil said that so far, the number of Omicron cases has remained below 50 in West Java. He also assured that the provincial government has continued to remain vigilant in anticipating local transmission by using the lessons learned while handling the Delta variant.

"There was no report that (the four Omicron cases in Bandung district) came from the airport or the borders," he said.

Earlier, head of the West Java Health Office, Dr. R Nina Susana Dewi, said that one of the four patients had returned from abroad and infected the other members of the family.

That one person had undergone quarantine and tested negative, but developed fever and anosmia upon arriving home, she informed.

Then, the Health Office conducted tracing and detected three more Omicron infections in the family, she added.

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Translator: Bagus R, Kenzu T
Editor: Sri Haryati
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