Indonesia reports 1st case of local Omicron transmission

Jakarta: Indonesia on Tuesday announced its first locally transmitted Omicron case in capital Jakarta, pushing the government to be more vigilant in tracking the spread of the new Covid-19 variant.

"This patient is a male aged 37 years old, with no history of overseas travel in the last few months, nor any contact with international visitors," the Ministry of Health's Covid-19 vaccination spokesperson Siti Nadia Tarmizi told an online press conference.

From Medan city in the North Sumatra province, the patient arrived in Jakarta on December 6, and on the same day he and his wife visited a mall in the Sudirman Central Business District in the capital city.

An antigen test he did at a hospital before flying back to Medan concluded that he was infected with coronavirus, and on December 26, the result of a laboratory test confirmed that he was infected by the Omicron variant, while his wife was negative for the virus.

Authorities are currently tracing the patient's close contacts and conducting swab tests for people who visited the mall and the hospital, as well as an apartment in North Jakarta where the patient lives.

With this new patient, the total number of Covid-19 cases of the Omicron variant stands at 47, including 45 international travellers and a worker at a quarantine centre.