Arrijal Rachman, Jakarta – Griffith University epidemiologist Dicky Budiman on Wednesday noted that Indonesia has entered its Covid-19 third wave that is mainly driven by the spread of the Omicron variant. He argues that determining this status does not need to wait for daily confirmed cases to be logged for two weeks.

"Within one continuous week the trend continues to grow, that is a beginning. Especially if the increase is significant and in an exponential pattern," said Dicky to Tempo on February 2.

He insists there are still a large number of the population that are prone to infections and in terms of immune vulnerability, Indonesia is arguably weaker and easily exposed to new variants.

"The number is pretty significant to become a fuel for another wave. We can surely see this in constantly rising positivity rate tests. We are not in an early phase anymore but already moving higher to a likely third wave," he explains.

Budiman also noted that the most vulnerable groups are children, elderly people, and people with comorbidity, which needs swift responses from the government to contain the spread of Covid-19.

Tempo on Tuesday reported that the Indonesian Health Ministry believes Indonesia is looking to enter the initial phase of another coronavirus wave but is not actually experiencing a Covid-19 third wave despite the number of confirmed cases continuing to rise.

The Ministry's director of direct infectious diseases Siti Nadia Tarmizi denied news headlines stating otherwise. "If the [third wave] is official the Health Ministry would certainly issue a press release," said Tarmizi on February 1.

Source: https://en.tempo.co/read/1556503/epidemiologist-argues-indonesia-has-entered-a-covid-19-third-wav