Covid-19 Variants That Have Spread in Indonesia

jpnn.com, JAKARTA - In a number of countries, new variants of Covid-19 have emerged. Indonesia is no exception.

Minister of Health Budi Gunadi Sadikin, however, believed that Covid-19 vaccines available in Indonesia were still effective enough to deal with new variants of the virus.

"So far, if there is a variant of the virus that enters the body, Insya Allah [God willing], the immunity that has been formed should still be sufficient to cope," Budi told the press at the Presidential Office in Jakarta, Monday (15/11), after attending a limited meeting to evaluate the implementation of community restrictions with President Joko Widodo.

Budi said that currently, various Covid-19 variants had spread in Indonesia.

"Indeed, the Delta variant, with the code B.1.617.2, already has children, namely AY.4, AY.23, AY.24. Well, those in Indonesia are mostly the sub-variants of AY.23 and AY.24. There is also the granchild of AY.4, namely AY.4.2, which is now widely spread in England, also called the New Delta variant," he said.

He said the variants had similar genetic mutations to the parent virus.

"Well, in Indonesia, [...] AY.4.2 doesn't exist yet. All Delta variants, their children, their sub-variants, their grandchildren have similar genetic mutations," said Budi.

The Delta variant of the corona virus, AY.4.2, is said to be the cause of the increase in Covid-19 cases by up to 10 percent in the UK and a number of European countries.