JAKARTA, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- The peak of the second wave of COVID-19 triggered by the Delta variant has passed in Indonesia, with a decline in both new cases and hospitalizations, a senior Indonesian health official said Tuesday.
Indonesia continues to be vigilant in dealing with this pandemic, as spikes in cases are still happening in neighboring countries such as Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam, said Deputy Health Minister Dante Saksono Harbuwono.
The Mu variant of the COVID-19 pandemic has not been detected yet in Indonesia based on whole-genome sequencing tests of 7,000 samples, he said.
According to the weekly bulletin of the World Health Organization, the Mu variant was first detected in Colombia in January 2021, and is spreading to several areas in South America, the United States, and some European countries.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo said while inspecting vaccinations in East Java province on Tuesday that COVID-19 would not completely disappear from the world.
"What we can do is to control it, so that an exponential increase in cases will not happen like some time ago," he said. Enditem
