“The medicines that are currently used are still effective against these new variants,” Head of the IDI COVID-19 Task Force Erlina Burhan stated during a media briefing on the COVID-19 case update followed online on Thursday.
Those medicines include Molnuvirapir, Remdesivir, Favipiravir, and Oseltamivir, as well as other monoclonal types, such as Tocilizumab.
In addition, research results indicated that booster vaccination would improve antibodies to neutralize the XBB and XBC subvariants of Omicron.
To this end, she said, her association suggested to accelerate booster vaccination.
Burhan also urged the government to consider the development of bivalent vaccines in Indonesia to prevent the spread of the XBB and XBC subvariants in the country.
She remarked that XBB was first discovered in India in August 2022 and XBC in the United Kingdom was a hereditary variant from the mutation of Delta and Omicron BA.2 and BA.2.75 caused by virus circulation in the community that could not be contained.
Data from the World Health Organization (WHO) stated that since October 17, 2022, XBB had been reported in 26 countries, such as Australia, Bangladesh, Denmark, India, Japan, and the United States.
The United Kingdom had reported the existence of XBC. In addition, 193 cases of the XBC subvariant were detected in the Philippines.
The first case of COVID-19 in Indonesia was confirmed in March 2020. According to data from the COVID-19 Handling Task Force, as of November 3, 2022, the nation has recorded 6,507,610 COVID-19 cases, 6,316,793 recoveries, and 158,737 deaths.
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Translator: Andi Firdaus, Raka Adji
Editor: Sri Haryati
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