The Indonesian government has confirmed the detection of three cases of two mutated variants of the coronavirus in the country, health minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin has said.
Sadikin said on Monday that the detected mutations were known as the B1617, first detected in India, and B1351, first detected in South Africa. Two cases of the B1617 variant were detected in the national capital Jakarta, while one case of the B1351 variant was detected in Bali Island.
To date, the archipelagic nation has detected six coronavirus variants.
"We need to manage this on account of the fact that the number is still small, as they can spread rapidly due to their higher infection rate as compared to other variants," Sadikin said.
Isolation measures should soon be applied to those having contracted the new coronavirus strains, and those who came in contact with them should be traced and examined at the earliest, the minister added.
