Indonesia's Omicron cases climb to 318

JAKARTA: The Omicron variant is spreading gradually in Indonesia as the number of positive cases rose to 318 after 57 more people contracted the virus as of last Friday.

The new cases involved 50 imported and seven local transmissions, according to Health Ministry spokesperson Dr Siti Nadia Tarmidzi in a statement today.

She said there were 23 local transmission cases and 295 cases from overseas travellers since December 2021 till Jan 7.

Most cases were detected in fully vaccinated travellers returning from Turkey and Saudi Arabia, while 4.3 per cent of the infected had comorbidities such as diabetes mellitus and hypertension.

Amid rising cases, the government barred visitors from 14 countries, namely South Africa, Botswana, Norway, France, Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Eswatini, Lesotho, the United Kingdom and Denmark.

The restriction also applies to international travellers who have transited through those countries in the past 14 days.

Indonesia's COVID-19 tally rose to 4,265,187 as of Jan 7 with 518 new cases, surpassing the 500-case mark in the past two days.

-- BERNAMA