Amidst the Omicron Wave, Many Jakarta Residents Feel 'Unfazed'

The emergence of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 triggered a significant increase in infection cases in Indonesia.

At the beginning of January 2022, confirmed Covid-19 cases in Indonesia were still below 1,000 new cases per day. However, this number continued to rise to over 63,000 new cases per day in mid-February 2022.

According to data from the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID), as of February 18, 2022, Indonesia had the highest number of Omicron cases in Southeast Asia.

Data from the Ministry of Health also shows that until the second week of February 2022, DKI Jakarta was the province with the highest number of active Covid-19 cases nationally.

DKI Jakarta Residents 'Unconcerned,' But Residents of Other Provinces Worried

Despite being hit by a wave of Omicron variant transmission, the majority of DKI Jakarta residents do not feel worried.

According to a survey by Indikator Politik Indonesia, 56% of respondents from Jakarta felt "unconcerned" about the spread of the Omicron variant. 38.4% felt worried, while 5.6% were not worried.

However, nationally, the majority of Indonesian citizens are worried about this new variant.

The majority of respondents nationwide (66.8%) felt worried about the Omicron transmission. This breaks down to 25.8% very worried, 41% somewhat worried, 28.5% unconcerned, and 2.2% not worried.

Respondents from Maluku and Papua expressed the highest level of concern about the spread of Omicron, at 80.3%. The remaining 12.1% felt unconcerned, and 7.6% were not worried.

Indikator Politik conducted an online survey from January 15 to February 17, 2022. The target population of this survey was Indonesian citizens aged 17 years and older or who were married, and had internet access via smartphone.

A random sample of 626 respondents was obtained from this population. The method used was simple random sampling with a margin of error of approximately 4% at a 95% confidence level.