JAKARTA, April 18 — Another new Covid-19 variant, the B1525, has been detected in Indonesia, believed to be from Malaysia after an Indonesian citizen who returned to the country tested positive.
Indonesia’s Ministry of Health spokesperson for Covid-19 vaccination affairs, Siti Nadia Tarmizi, was quoted by local media as saying that the variant was detected in a patient who had returned to Batam in the Riau Islands from Malaysia in February.
“A specimen taken from a PMI (Indonesian Migrant Workers) in February was found to be a new variant, and the patient had undergone treatment and has since recovered,” she said.
Siti Nadia said early research found that the B1525 variant was not a mutation of existing Covid-19 variants such as B117 and E484K, but a separate virus variant.
As of April 17, Indonesia has recorded 1,599,763 Covid-19 positive cases, with 5,041 new cases recorded within the past 24 hours.
According to data posted on the official Twitter page of the Indonesian National Disaster Management Agency @BNPB_Indonesia yesterday, a total of 1,450,192 positive cases have recovered while the death toll stands at 43,328.
— Bernama
