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Indonesia is battling its deadliest wave yet against the highly-contagious Delta variant of COVID-19.

The variant shows a significantly higher rate of growth compared to other variants, making it highly transmissible and causing increased hospitalisation and deaths.

Recent analysis of the Delta variant supports increased transmissibility and reduced vaccine effectiveness along with a higher death rate among unvaccinated people, this is rather concerning given that there is still a large number of the Brunei population who are not yet vaccinated. It was also worrying to read that the most recent COVID cases in the country were people from Indonesia.

The Delta variant has shown the ability to escape robust standard operating practices, as shown in the recent spike of cases in Australia, with some of these arising from people arriving from Indonesia.

In the recent COVID cases highlighted in Brunei, detection of these infections was well after a one-week period, with some having already completed 10 or more days in quarantine.

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This long period, where the virus is undetected, allows more time for the virus to infect hotel staff, drivers and medical staff.

As was detailed in Australia recently, the new strain transfers very quickly to close contacts of contacts, making it difficult to effectively contact trace.

This variant would put immense pressure on our medical facilities as is happening in Indonesia and other countries with surging cases.

Have the authorities considered temporary banning all people that have recently been in Indonesia or have come directly from Indonesia, as has been done with Pakistan and India, where the Delta variant is also surging?

A Concerned Resident

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