PALANGKA RAYA – EXECUTIVE ADMINISTRATION BUREAU. The Public Communications Team of Central Kalimantan Covid-19 Handling Task Force referred to the Central Covid-19 Task Force, said that the symptoms of Omicron are not as severe as the Delta variant, but they have the potential to experience severe illness and death for the elderly and those who have not been vaccinated and have comorbidities. Therefore, it is considered important to know the general symptoms of Omicron such as fever, cough, flu, and sore throat.

“If you experience Omicron symptoms, you can immediately have RT-PCR or Antigen Swab test. If the test result is positive for Covid-19, then you can go to the hospital if the symptoms are moderate, severe, and critical or have self-isolation when experiencing no symptoms or mild symptoms, either by self-isolation at home or centralized isolation. For patients who are older than 45 years and have comorbidities, it is advisable to contact a health facility and the examining doctor will determine whether they need to be hospitalized or referred to a centralized isolation,” explained the Task Force Team in a press release, Wednesday (16/2/2022).

In order to break the chain of Covid-19 transmission, the Task Force Team always urges the public to be disciplined in implementing the 5M health protocols (wearing masks, washing hands with soap or cleansing hands with sanitizer, maintaining distance, reducing mobility, and avoiding crowds) in their daily activities. The Task Force team also calls for the implementation of 3T (Testing, Tracing, and Treatment) and vaccinations so that more people are protected and Covid-19 will soon pass in Central Kalimantan and all over the world.

In today’s press release, the data on Covid-19 in Central Kalimantan delivered as follows: there were 371 confirmed cases, namely in Palangka Raya (189 people), Katingan (3 people), East Kotawaringin (30 people), West Kotawaringin (20 people), Lamandau (1 person), Sukamara (2 people), Seruyan (5 people), Pulang Pisau (13 people), Kapuas (79 people), Gunung Mas (7 people), South Barito (8 people), East Barito (7 people), North Barito (3 people), and Murung Raya (4 people), so from 48506 people to 48877 people.

There were 73 people recovered, namely in Palangka Raya (50 people), Katingan (4 people), East Kotawaringin (7 people), Lamandau (3 people), Pulang Pisau (4 people), Kapuas (2 people), Gunung Mas (1 person), and East Barito (2 people), so from 45350 people to 45423 people.

There were 298 patients under treatment, so from 1561 people to 1859 people. And, there were no additional cases of death, so there were still 1595 people, with a 3.3% case fatality rate (CFR).

Regarding Bed Occupancy in hospitals or Bed Occupancy Rate (BOR), Intensive Beds decreased in Bed Occupancy (-5.67%), so that from 32.50% to 26.83%, where there was 1 municipality with BOR above 50%, namely Palangka Raya Municipality. Meanwhile, Isolated Beds increased in Bed Occupancy (1.74%), so that from 19.81% to 21.55%, where there is 1 municipality with BOR above 50%, namely Palangka Raya Municipality.

Regarding the achievement of the vaccination target of 2,036,104, the realization of Dose I Vaccination for Central Kalimantan Province has reached 90.96%. All regencies/municipality have achieved above 70% of Dose I Vaccination.

Furthermore, according to Instruction of the Minister of Home Affairs Number 11 of 2022 dated February 14, 2022 concerning the Enforcement of Restrictions on Community Activities at Level 3, Level 2, and Level 1 and Optimizing the Command Post for Handling Corona Virus Disease 2019 at the Village and Sub-District Level to Control the Transmission of Corona Virus Disease 2019 for the region of Sumatra, Nusa Tenggara, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Maluku, and Papua, for regencies/municipality in Central Kalimantan Province, three criteria are applied, namely Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3, until February 28, 2022.

Meanwhile, regencies/municipality with these criteria include: Level 1 includes of Kotawaringin Barat and Pulang Pisau; Level 2 includes South Barito, North Barito, Seruyan, Sukamara, Lamandau, Gunung Mas, Murung Raya, and East Barito; and Level 3 includes East Kotawaringin, Kapuas, Katingan, and Palangka Raya. (ran/transl.feb)