Batam, Batamnews - The Riau Islands Provincial Health Office acknowledged the finding of the SARS-CoV-2 virus variant B1525 mutation in Batam.

Head of Riau Islands Province Health Service (Dinkes) Muhammad Bisri informed the findings after his case was revealed by the Ministry of Health.

Bisri said the findings were due to samples sent from the Batam Disease Control Environmental Health Engineering Center (BTKL-PP) to the Health Research and Development Agency (Balitbangkes) of the Indonesian Ministry of Health.

"The sample is routinely sent to Jakarta, if we can't detect it, then Balitbangkes will detect the new variant," Bisri said when contacted, Thursday (15/4/2021).

Based on this, his party immediately followed up with people who were confirmed positive for the new Covid-19 variant.

Bisri conveyed that the person concerned was not being treated previously because he did not show any symptoms. Thus, steps were taken by isolating the patient in a flat owned by the City Government (Pemko) of Batam.

"After that, the tracing (contact tracing) was carried out on the patient," he said.

Bisri further explained that the new variant is suspected to be more contagious than the old variant. However after tracing attempts were made, there was no spreading trace of the new variants.

"So only that one person," he said.

Currently, the patient affected by the new variant has been declared cured and has been allowed to go home. Bisri also confirmed that the patient was an Indonesian Migrant Worker (PMI) from Malaysia.