Day: July 17, 2021

Tanjungpinang (ANTARA) – As many as 61,973 children in the 12-17 age group have been vaccinated in Riau Islands, according to spokesperson for the province’s COVID-19 Response Task Force, Mochammad Bisri.

They account for 27.22 percent of the 228,245 children targeted by the COVID-19 vaccination program in the province, Bisri informed here on Saturday.

The task force is targeting to vaccinate the remaining 165,691 children by July 23, 2021, he said.

This would be in keeping with Riau Islands Governor Ansar Ahmad’s target of completing the vaccinations of children aged 12 to 17 years by July 23, 2021, he added.

Meanwhile, the number of vaccinated people aged 18 years and above in Riau Islands has reached 857,337, accounting for 61.14 percent of the 1,140,997 targeted recipients, he disclosed.

The vaccination program for people aged 18 years and above is targeted to be completed by July 30, 2021. By doing so, the province can reach the 70-percent vaccination target required for achieving herd immunity or community immunity, he added.

“The remaining 70 percent of the target until July 30, 2021, is 124,295 people,” he informed.

Therefore, each district and city must ramp up vaccinations in order to achieve the target set by the Riau Islands provincial government, he said.

He also urged people who have yet to get vaccinated so far to participate in the government’s vaccination program to support efforts to break the chain of COVID-19 transmission.

“The government will not succeed in suppressing COVID-19 cases without the support of the residents,” he emphasized.

The task force has requested additional vaccines from the central government as vaccine stocks have declined in the province, partly due to the enthusiastic response from residents for the vaccination drive, he said.

Source: ANTARA News

Antigen tests will be more effective if the test is conducted on the fifth day after close contact with COVID-19 patients

Jakarta (ANTARA) – Pulmonary specialist doctor Nila Kartika Ratna called on the need for close contacts of COVID-19 patients to undergo self-isolation despite the antigen swab test results coming negative.

The rationale behind conducting self-isolation in this scenario is that the test results could be inaccurate since the incubation period of the SARS-CoV-2 virus is between five and 14 days of exposure.

Hence, antigen tests will be more effective if the test is conducted on the fifth day after close contact with COVID-19 patients.

“For example, today you are in contact with a COVID-19-positive patient. If you receive a negative antigen test result, it does not mean you are not infected. Think further. It could be that the virus is still in incubation,” Ratna explained during a webinar on Saturday.

At the Indonesian Association of Traditional and Herbal Medicine Developers (PDPOTJI) webinar, Ratna highly recommended close contacts of COVID-19 patients to isolate themselves, given the virus’ two-week incubation period.

During self-isolation, close contacts should try as much as possible to not crowd or meet their family in order to minimize the potential of COVID-19 transmission, she emphasized.

Citing an example, Ratna noted that after finding out, a young man, who was in close contact with a COVID-19 patient from his workplace, isolated himself for five days and was reported COVID-19 negative in the antigen test.

After knowing about the negative results, the man decided to meet his friends and family. However, on the tenth day, he experienced symptoms, such as fever and nausea. In the end, after retaking the test, he was found positive for COVID-19.

Based on the case example, it is highly recommended for close contacts of COVID-19 patients to conduct self-isolation despite the negative antigen test results.

Ratna suggested that in order to get effective COVID-19 test results, the people should undergo RT-PCR testing to check for the presence of the COVID-19 virus in their bodies.

If the test results are positive, then people are advised to immediately contact the nearest community health center (Puskesmas) or use telemedicine services to get effective COVID-19 treatment.

Source: ANTARA News

Jakarta (ANTARA) – The government needs to pay greater attention to the condition of healthcare and medical workers who are facing high workloads and risk in handling COVID-19 patients, deputy speaker of the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) has said.

“The medical and healthcare workers have put their lives at risk to help combat the pandemic. The government should be fully conscious (to their hardship),” Syarief Hasan said in a written statement received here on Saturday.

The workers’ pay is also not commensurate with their increased workload in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, he added.

“(The healthcare and medical workers) are working hard, yet some healthcare volunteers have received only a minimum for their pay,” he pointed out.

The government should immediately and evenly distribute incentives — ranging from Rp5 million (around US$343) to Rp15 million (around US$1,029) per month — that have been promised to healthcare and medical workers, he added.

“Incentives supposed to have been received by November (2020) have only recently been disbursed to the workers in several regions,” Hasan noted.

The government funded the healthcare budget through the sale of government bonds in 2020, he said. The distribution of the budget for meeting healthcare workers’ needs and purposes must be prioritized, he added.

If health workers resign due to unpaid incentives, COVID-19 patient handling would become more difficult, especially if the worst case scenario of 100 thousand infections per day unfolds, he cautioned.

With daily positive cases reaching 57,756, and a high number of patients still undergoing treatment and yet to recover, the country is in urgent need of more healthcare workers, Hasan said.

“If no improvement occurs, this nation and its people would suffer more,” he remarked.

He said the government should be open to critical feedback from experts and the society and seek suggestions on ways to handle the pandemic together.

The nation must unite to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic as the infection rate needs to be reduced first before an economic recovery process can start, he added.

Source: ANTARA News

Jakarta (ANTARA) – The sharp spike in COVID-19 cases in Indonesia is most likely caused by the highly contagious delta variant, Chairman of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences’ (LIPI’s) SARS-CoV-2 Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) Team, Sugiyono Saputra, stated.

“Based on data from the GISAID, where the SARS-CoV-2 genome has been successfully sequenced and identified in the last three weeks, more than 95 percent were the delta variant, whilst the rest comprised the alpha variant and the Indonesian one,” Saputra noted in a statement received here, Saturday.

He explained that based on the research conducted at LIPI’s Bio Safety Level 3 laboratory, by taking samples for eight consecutive days between June 10 and June 18, almost 100 percent of the findings involved the delta variant.

“It was proven by the data that the spike in the number of cases in Indonesia was caused by the delta variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus,” he stated.

Indonesia has seen a significant surge in the number of COVID-19 cases in the last few weeks, during which the number of new cases totaled 523,695 during the July 2-15 period.

On July 11, Indonesia recorded the highest number of COVID-19 deaths in the world, with the number of mortalities reaching 1,007 in a single day.

The spike in COVID-19 cases in Indonesia was suspected to be caused by the outbreak of the new delta variant, first discovered in India.

To this end, Saputra cautioned that the highly infectious variant can also lower effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines and remedies.

“The genetic material found in the delta variant has characteristics that can reduce the effectiveness of vaccinations and drug therapies currently being conducted,” he stated.

Saputra further noted that based on data obtained from the United Kingdom, the delta variant is highly correlated with an increase in the hospital occupancy rate, which means the variant has an effect on the severity of conditions of COVID-19 patients.

Apart from the delta variant, cases in Indonesia were also due to a new variant found locally, known as the B.1.466 variant.

He noted that before the delta variant had entered Indonesia, a new local variant had dominated the COVID-19 cases in the country.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned Indonesia to continue to monitor local variants, as genetically, these variants can increase transmission in the community. Additionally, these variants can cause a decrease in the effectiveness of vaccines and drug therapy.

“However, up until now, there is no scientific evidence related to epidemiological effects or scientific evidence that shows the direct effect of mutation that occurs. Currently, there are not many local variants, and so far, the delta variant is deemed to be more dangerous,” he expounded.

Since the COVID-19 research was first conducted in Indonesia, over 10 variants were discovered in over a year. However, the variants that had raised the most concerns are the delta, alpha, and the variant of interest called gamma.

“Although the world is currently shocked by the new variants of COVID-19, specifically the gamma and lambda variants, we have not found these variants in Indonesia according to data from GISAID,” he stated.

Source: ANTARA News

Jakarta (ANTARA) – Indonesian Military (TNI) commander, Air Chief Marshal Hadi Tjahjanto, on Saturday urged Indonesians to form a habit of wearing masks even as daily COVID-19 infections crossed the 50-thousand mark.

“Let us make mask wearing and self-isolation become a part of our culture in battling our invisible enemy, COVID-19,” he said in a press statement that ANTARA received in Jakarta on Saturday.

He also highlighted the importance of wearing face masks in the fight against the coronavirus during a visit to a command post monitoring the enforcement of a partial lockdown in Sidoarjo district, East Java, this week.

During his visit, Tjahjanto inspected a warehouse storing medicines in the Gedangan neighborhood and staple food packages meant to be distributed to residents affected severely by the impact of COVID-19.

Free packages of medicines have been distributed to self-isolating COVID-19, patients based on data provided by heads of local public health centers, according to the press statement.

Officially referred to as the “PPKM Darurat” or emergency public activity restrictions, the partial COVID-19 lockdown has been enforced on the islands of Java and Bali from July 3 to July 20, 2021.

Amid the growing threat posed by the more contagious Delta variant of the virus, Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture, Muhadjir Effendy, has hinted the government plans to extend the restrictions till the end of July, 2021.

The COVID-19 pandemic initially hit the Chinese city of Wuhan in 2019 and subsequently spread across the globe, including to nations in the Asia-Pacific region.

The Indonesian government announced the nation’s first confirmed cases on March 2, 2020.

Since then, the central and regional governments have made incessant efforts to flatten the nation’s coronavirus curve by applying healthcare protocols.

As part of efforts to win the fight against COVID-19, the Indonesian government has been conducting a nationwide vaccination program to contain infections since January 13, 2021.

Source: ANTARA News

Jakarta (ANTARA) – The Electronics and Telecommunications Research Center (P2ET) of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) has developed a ventilator named Sivenesia (Smart Innovation Ventilator Indonesia) to support the nation’s COVID-19 handling efforts.

The Sivenesia ventilator offers both CPAP and BiPAP operation modes, P2ET researcher Eko Joni Pristianto said in a statement received here on Saturday.

“CPAP and BiPAP are categorized as the most effective non-invasive treatments and are the first choices that are most commonly used for patients with respiratory issues,” he explained.

The availability of breathing aids, such as ventilators, has become very important in handling critical COVID-19 cases, whose number has continued to rise in every health facility, he pointed out.

In CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) mode, the Sivenesia ventilator will produce one level of positive air pressure at a constant and continuous pace to help keep patients’ airways open, Pristianto informed.

Meanwhile, in BiPAP (Bi-level Positive Airway Pressure) mode, the ventilator will produce two levels of positive air pressure — when the patient breathes in (inhales) and when the patient exhales — so that the patient can breathe more comfortably, while maintaining the required PEEP (Positive End-Expiratory Pressure), he added.

Ventilators with CPAP and BiPAP modes are usually recommended by doctors for patients suffering from sleep apnea, a condition in which a patient’s respiratory system stops for a while during sleep, which can lead to poor sleep quality, he said.

The CPAP or BiPAP are pressure-based ventilator modes that aim to prevent airway obstruction, a symptom experienced by many COVID-19 patients, as well as to train the respiratory muscles before the patient can breathe normally, Pristianto said.

The purpose of using a ventilator is to keep the patient’s respiratory tract open, while the basic difference between the CPAP and BiPAP modes lies in the level of breathing comfort, he explained.

In CPAP mode, the Sivenesia ventilator will provide continuous positive pressure air flow through a tube connected to the nose or through the mouth, which means patients may experience discomfort, especially during the exhalation process, he further said.

This problem could be particularly troubling for patients with neuromuscular disease, an extensive group of disorders characterized by motor changes produced by injury or neurological disorders, he added.

Meanwhile, in the BiPAP mode, the ventilator will provide variable pressure when the patient inhales and when the patient exhales so that the patient can breathe more easily, he said.

The Sivenesia has undergone a series of testing stages, including laboratory-scale testing in the initial stage, where testing focuses on technical issues, he informed.

“We have carried out a function test at the Health Facility Security Center (BPFK) of the Indonesian Ministry of Health and have passed the test, where we received certification,” he said.

The function test, which lasted for 21 days non-stop, included a series of trials on performance, system endurance, and electrical safety, he disclosed.

“In the next stage, we will conduct a Sivenesia clinical trial as the next step to obtain a distribution permit as a form of dissemination of our research results,” he added.

Source: ANTARA News