Indonesia Highlights: Indonesian Migrant Workers Returning From Saudi Arabia Suspected of Carrying British Covid-19 Strain to Indonesia | 1 Policeman Dead Following Clashes with Islamic Militants in C

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com – Indonesian medical authorities have confirmed that the B.1.1.7 strain of Covid-19 were brought to the country, via two migrant workers who returned to Indonesia from Saudi Arabia.

A firefight between Indonesian security personnel, among them the Police’s Mobile Brigade Corps or Brimob and militants from the East Indonesia Mujahidin [MIT] group, killed a trooper from the elite police unit. 

And the Indonesian National Police's equally vaunted Densus 88 counterterrorist police unit nabbed 22 militants in a series of operations in the province of East Java. This and more on Indonesia Highlights:

SHUTTERSTOCK Illustration of Covid-19 in Indonesia

Indonesian Migrant Workers Returning From Saudi Arabia Suspected of Carrying British Covid-19 Strain to Indonesia

The Indonesian Ministry of Health has announced that it has traced the two carriers of the B.1.1.7 Covid-19 strain from Great Britain.

“The two B.1.1.7 cases made its way to Indonesia via Indonesian nationals returning from Saudi Arabia,” said Ministry of Health spokesperson Siti Nadia Tarmizi on Wednesday.

Health authorities in the West Java town of Karawang, the hometown of the two cases, confirmed the Ministry of Health’s findings.

“The two B.1.1.7 cases were identified as 45-year old A and 40-year old M, two Indonesian migrant workers who returne from Saudi Arabia.” said Karawang Health Services head Nanik Jodjana.

“They were among seven people from West Java who tested positive for Covid-19 overseas and were quarentined. However, they tested negative by the time they returned to Karawang.”

“We cannot say for certain which country they contracted B.1.1.7 in, but they definitely got it overseas,” said the spokesperson for the Covid-19 Task Force in Karawang, Fitra Hergyana.

The B.1.1.7 Covid-19 strain was first detected in Great Britain in September 2020, and has spread to 33 countries such as India, Malaysia, and South Korea.

British medical authorities said the mutation is 40 to 70 percent more infectious, and at least 30 percent deadlier, than the original strain from Wuhan, China.

Source:

https://go.kompas.com/read/2021/03/04/024516274/indonesian-migrant-workers-returning-from-saudi-arabia-suspected-of-carrying?page=all#page3. 

Brimob personnel in Central Sulawesi await the remains of Brigadier 1st Class Herlis at the local branch of the Police's Bhayangkara Hospital, following his death in a firefight against Islamic militants in Poso on Wednesday (3/3/2021)

1 Policeman Dead Following Clashes with Islamic Militants in Central Sulawesi