Day: August 13, 2021

The government is improving data on the COVID-19 death rate in Indonesia as there are a number of records that do not match the conditions on the ground, Minister of Communication and Informatics, Johnny G. Plate, has said.

“The government has not removed or eliminated the death toll from the assessment of the level of public activity restrictions (PPKM),” he assured in a statement received in Jakarta on Thursday.

Improvements are currently being made to ensure data accuracy, the minister said adding, if data is tidy, the death indicator will be re-entered.

The government is continuing to work hard to harmonize and validate data from the field, regarding the indicators used for the PPKM level assessment, he said.

“There are three basic indicators used in determining the level of PPKM in an area, namely the rate of transmission, the positivity rate, and the mortality rate,” he informed. The minister said that the government found data in the form of accumulated COVID-19 patient mortality in the past few weeks, so they were not actual.

“This causes distortion in the analysis process of an area,” he added.

He said the government has decided to improve the data by sorting out real-time death data on the day of a patient’s death, which is currently accumulated in the death data of the central government.

For example, out of the number of deaths entered on a date, not all were actual deaths on that day, but included data that had been recorded three weeks earlier and then reported again, the minister said.

During data repair, he noted, the government will temporarily use other indicators for assessment.

Earlier, spokesperson for the Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs and Investment, Jodi Mahardi, had said that the government is trying to act quickly to fix the death data to get a valid number.

As a result, the assessment result is also more accurate, Mahardi added.

Source: Antara News

Indonesia received 12,505 oxygen concentrators and six thousand nasal cannulas arranged by Indonesian and Singaporean companies from Singapore on Thursday to support its COVID-19 fight.

Indonesian Ambassador to Singapore, Suryo Pratomo, as well as representatives from Indonesian and Singaporean companies attended the assistance handover ceremony at the Indonesian Embassy in Singapore.

The handover of assistance was also attended virtually by secretary general of the Indonesian Foreign Affairs Ministry Cecep Herawan, head of the Indonesian Health Ministry’s Health Crisis Center Eka Jusup Singka, and the Indonesian Consulate General for Shanghai, Deny Kurnia.

Herawan said that collaboration and cooperation with various parties is a significant solution to free Indonesia from the pandemic.

“To flatten the curve (of COVID-19 cases), we need not only the role of the state, but also the role of business people, academics, community leaders, and also the media,” he remarked.

He said the collaboration is expected to further strengthen the close and cooperative relationship between Indonesia and Singapore, in line with the spirit of the month of independence for Indonesia and Singapore, which falls in August. Meanwhile, Health Crisis Center head Singka said that most of the assistance that had arrived in Indonesia had been distributed.

Further aid distribution will focus on areas outside Java and Bali, which are currently reported to have experienced a significant increase in COVID-19 cases, he added.

The donations are expected to help Indonesia free itself from the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, he said.

The same expectation was also expressed by representatives from Indonesian and Singaporean companies that provided the assistance.

Chairperson of the Bakti Barito Foundation, Fifi Setiawaty, said that the collaboration not only showed the companies’ solidarity as a business player, but also reflected a strong people-to-people relationship.

Meanwhile, DBS Bank Group chief information and head of technology & operations, Jimmy Ng, emphasized the importance of cooperation in the midst of the pandemic.

“If you want to go fast, just go alone, but if you want to go far, then we must walk together,” Ng said.

Meanwhile, the companies involved in providing the assistance include Bakti Barito Foundation, DBS Bank, PT Cikarang Listrindo, PT Dharma Satya Nusantara, East Ventures, Indies Capital Partners Pte Ltd, PT Kino Indonesia Tbk, Sinarmas, Tanoto Foundation, PT TBS Energi Utama Tbk, Triputra Group, UID Foundation, Wahanan Artha, CapitaLand Hope Foundation, COMO Foundation, GrabTaxi Holdings Pte Ltd, Hotel Properties, Singtel, and Temasek Foundation.

Source: Antara News

Indonesia has managed to reduce the number of COVID-19 active cases, or patients receiving treatment and conducting self-isolation, by 60,902 in the past week, according to the COVID-19 Response Task Force.

The number of active cases fell by 60,902 in the week ended August 8, 2021 compared to 38 thousand the previous week, chief of the task force’s data and information technology section, Dr. Dewi Nur Aisyah, said in Jakarta on Thursday.

“We are evaluating (the active cases) every week and their trend is quite good nationwide,” she said. At the national level, Indonesia has passed the peak of COVID-19 active cases as of August 8, 2021 when their number dropped by 25.77 percent, or 60,902, she informed.

“The number of active cases has dropped by 25 percent from the peak. Alhamdulillah (Thank God), the development is quite good. The number of active cases currently stands at 426 thousand that we must continue to curb,” she said at an online talk show.

The high number of active cases was one of the government’s reasons for extending the enforcement of public activity restrictions (PPKM) in Java and Bali by another week and other regions by another two weeks, she explained.

“We look at the developments in the number of active cases every week. We want the number of active cases to fall. The number fell in the past couple of weeks after it rose several weeks earlier,” she said.

Despite a significant decline in the number of active cases nationwide, the number of active cases in several regions outside Java and Bali is still high, she added.

Source: Antara News

The Indonesian government has been working hard to provide all healthcare workers booster shots amid a surge in COVID-19 infections caused by the highly transmissible and deadly Delta variant of the coronavirus.

The national task force for COVID-19 handling on August 12, 2021 recorded 36,637 new confirmed COVID-19 daily cases, bringing the total tally to 3,247,715. Meanwhile, with 1,466 additional fatalities, the total death toll climbed to 113,664.

The figures are considered still high, although they have declined thanks to the government enforcing strict people’s movement restrictions (PPKM) or semi-lockdowns since July 3, 2021.

Indonesia’s daily COVID-19 cases had hit a record of 56,757 on July 15, 2021, while the daily deaths had touched 2,069 on July 27, 2021.

The Health Ministry has cited the Delta variant and poor compliance with health protocols as the main factors that triggered the drastic surge.

Many healthcare workers, particularly doctors and nurses, who practically have had no chance to rest as the country’s COVID-19 cases have not flattened since early 2020, have fallen victim to the new coronavirus variant. According to data from the Indonesian Medical Association (IDI), as of July 17 this year, 1,323 Indonesian healthcare workers have succumbed to COVID-19, and more than three thousand doctors have been exposed to the virus, Moh Adib Khumaidi, chairman of IDI’s mitigation team, said recently.

Khumaidi called for the launch of a movement to support and protect healthcare workers across regions. The IDI will also collaborate with other organizations, such as the Indonesian Nurses’ Association (PPNI), to promote the call to support healthcare workers, he said.

“We hope that it (the movement to help healthcare workers) will become a model that could be followed by every party to support and help healthcare workers, so they can stay healthy and continue to serve the Indonesian people,” he remarked.

The IDI also reported that as of July 17, 2021, a total of 545 doctors have succumbed to the virus The highest death count was recorded in East Java, reaching 110, followed by 83 in Jakarta, 81 in Central Java, and 76 in West Java.

“In July (2021), 114 doctors succumbed to COVID-19, or an increase of 100 percent compared to June,” Dr. Mahesa Pranadipa Maikel, executive head of IDI’s mitigation team, said.

In addition, 445 nurses, 223 midwives, 42 pharmacists, and 25 lab technicians have died of COVID-19. Data from the National Nurse Association Indonesia (PPNI) has shown that as of July 18, 2021, about 7,392 nurses have been infected with COVID-19, with 309 suspected cases and 445 deaths recorded so far.

Thus, about 1.4 million healthcare workers have been given the top priority in the vaccination program implemented by the government since January 13, 2021, which has mostly used CoronaVac bought from China’s Sinovac.

As of August 3, 2021, the nation has administered the first jab of CoronaVac to 1,600,119 healthcare workers and the second jab to 1,461,882 workers.

Overall, the government has set a target of administering vaccine jabs to 208 million Indonesians to build a herd immunity against the virus.

So far, at least 24,481,296 or 11.75 percent people have received the second jab and 51,181,322 or 24.58 percent people have gotten their first shot, mostly of Sinovac vaccine and some AstraZeneca vaccines received under the COVAX facility coordinated the World Health Organization (WHO), among others. With the nation overwhelmed by the Delta variant-triggered COVID-19 spike since June, several countries have donated vaccines, medical equipment, drugs, and oxygen to help Indonesia fight the surge.

Among the vaccines donated to Indonesia is Moderna vaccine from the United States (US). The Biden administration has so far shipped more than eight million doses of the Moderna vaccine to Jakarta.

Expressing gratitude to the donors, the Indonesian government has announced it will give healthcare workers a booster jab to double protection for them against the virus. The Moderna boosters will be administered this August.

The Moderna vaccines have been distributed throughout the country, particularly for healthcare workers.

“Jakarta has begun administering the third shot of vaccines to medical workers. We have set a target of administering the third vaccine dose to all medical workers at the end of this month,” Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan said recently.

The city administration began administering the booster doses to medical workers on July 20, 2021. The healthcare workers will be given the Moderna vaccine as the third shot, Baswedan informed. They had earlier received the Sinovac vaccine for their first and second shot, he said.

The governor expressed the hope that the third vaccine jab will protect medical workers as they perform their duties at hospitals and other health facilities. Meanwhile, due to the surge in cases, Indonesia’s demand for COVID-19 therapeutic drugs has climbed twelvefold since June 1, 2021, and daily oxygen requirement has climbed fivefold from 400 tons to two thousand tons, according to Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin.

“Since June 1 (2021), there has been an extraordinary surge in demand for drugs. The surge is about twelvefold,” he said from the Presidential Office recently.

To cope with the soaring demand for COVID drugs, the Health Ministry has asked the Indonesian Association of Pharmaceutical Companies (GP Farmasi) to increase production capacity and make preparations for the distribution of drugs.

The association is preparing for the import of raw materials for the production of COVID-19 therapeutic drugs, Sadikin said.

He said he expects much sought-after COVID-19 therapeutic drugs such as azithromycin, oseltamivir, and favipiravir to enter the market in significant quantities early in August, 2021.

“For example, the stock of azithromycin has currently reached 11.4 million (units) nationwide. Twenty local factories are producing this drug. So, actually, their production capacity is sufficient,” he remarked. “Several domestic producers will soon increase the stock of favipiravir, including Kimia Farma, which can produce 2 million (units) per day. PT Dexa Medica also plans to import 15 million units in August (201). We will also import 9.2 million units from several countries in August. The domestic plants also plan to produce 1 million units of favipiravir per day in August,” he added.

Earlier, Sadikin had pointed out that a mere 3 percent of medicines are being produced in Indonesia, and the remaining 97 percent are being imported.

“For medicines, only 3 percent are produced domestically. We still import 97 percent (of them), since out of the 1,809 drug items in the e-catalog, only 56 drug items are produced domestically,” the minister stated.

Out of the 10 major medicinal raw materials, only two are produced domestically, specifically Clopidogrel and Paracetamol, while the rest are still being imported, he noted.

The COVID-19 pandemic is an opportunity for Indonesia to seriously think of increasing drug production domestically, and striving toward self-reliance in drug productions, the minister said.

Source: Antara News

The Health Ministry has started distributing Moderna COVID-19 vaccines that will be administered to the general public in all provinces across Indonesia.

“The Moderna vaccine, which is allocated in the second week of August 2021, is to meet the need of administering two doses (to each recipient),” Health Ministry’s spokesperson for COVID-19 vaccination, Siti Nadia Tarmizi, informed here on Thursday.

She said two doses of the Moderna vaccine would be given to recipients at an interval of four weeks.

So far, Indonesia has received over 8 million doses of the Moderna vaccine donated by the US Government through the COVAX Facility, she noted. As many as 3 million doses of the total Moderna vaccines received have been allocated for 1.4 million health workers as boosters, she disclosed. According to Tarmizi, the remaining 5 million doses are in the process of being distributed to all regions to be allocated to the general public.

The Moderna vaccine uses a nucleoside-modified mRNA for boosting immunity against the SARS-CoV-2 virus and preventing COVID-19 transmission, she said.

The spokesperson stated that the Ministry of Health has directed that Moderna vaccines be stored in a refrigerator at a temperature of minus 25 degrees Celsius to minus 15 degrees Celsius in health office facilities. Meanwhile, in healthcare facilities, the vaccines can be stored in a vaccine refrigerator at a temperature of 2 to 8 degrees Celsius, she added.

According to Tarmizi, Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine will be given to participants who have so far not received any COVID-19 vaccination.

Vaccines and logistics will be distributed to the health office in each province, and they can then coordinate the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines to cities and districts, she added.

Source: Antara News

Jakarta (ANTARA) – Coordinating Economic Affairs Minister Airlangga Hartarto confirmed that 78.3 million Indonesians had received the COVID-19 vaccination as of August 11, 2021, out of the government’s total target of 208 million.

“The government will increase the vaccination target, from two million to 2.5 million injections per day,” Hartarto affirmed on Friday.

The minister noted that the government will increase the vaccination target to 2.5 million injections per day to achieve herd immunity while protecting vulnerable groups of people.

Hartarto later explained that the results of implementing public activity restrictions (PPKM) Level 4 had shown a promising outcome in reducing the daily count of COVID-19 cases.

The minister informed that the greater the decline in the mobility of people, the greater was the decrease in the number of cases. If the people’s mobility can be suppressed, then greater would be the tendency for the number of cases to decrease.

According to the Google Mobility Index for 13 districts and cities in Kalimantan implementing PPKM Level 4, the data indicated that the largest decline in mobility occurred in Kutai Kartanegara District, reaching 35.2 percent as of August 11, 2021.

This was followed by Tanah Laut District, Banjarmasin, Tarakan, Palangkaraya, Banjar Baru, Samarinda, Barito Kuala, and East Kutai District that recorded decreased mobility of between 15 percent and 17.6 percent.

In general, the number of active cases in Kalimantan in August 2021 decreased by 1.69 percent, with three provinces experiencing a decline and two provinces recording an increase, specifically South Kalimantan, with 34.27 percent, and North Kalimantan, with 26.66 percent.

On the other hand, of the 13 districts and cities in Kalimantan that implemented PPKM Level 4, seven areas witnessed an increase in the number of active cases, with six in South Kalimantan Province, and the highest experienced by Kota Baru and Tanah Bumbu District.

The death count in Kalimantan reached 8,209 as of August 11, 2021, with the largest Case Fatality Rate (CFR) in East Kalimantan Province, at 3.1 percent, and South Kalimantan, with three percent.

“The figure is higher or equal to the national CFR, which is three percent,” Hartarto pointed out.

Meanwhile, the death rate of other provinces was lower than the national CFR, with Central Kalimantan, at 2.9 percent; West Kalimantan, 2.4 percent; and North Kalimantan, at only 1.9 percent.

The testing numbers of all provinces in Kalimantan were still below 50 percent as of August 11, 2021, though a significant increase was recorded in recent weeks.

The same trend was observed in 13 districts and cities in Kalimantan applying PPKM Level 4, with testing numbers in all areas still below 25 percent, with even the highest being in Palangkaraya, at only 24 percent.

However, other indicators in Kalimantan, such as medical treatment, bed occupancy rate (BOR), and COVID-19 bed conversion, showed an rising trend.

This improvement was apparent from the 13 districts and cities in Kalimantan that implement PPKM Level 4, while two districts still recorded a high BOR: Tanah Laut, with 92 percent, and Banjar Baru, with 85 percent.

At the provincial level, two provinces with BOR above 70 percent were South Kalimantan, with 76 percent, and East Kalimantan, with 70 percent, while three other provinces had very low BOR rates of between 39 percent and 47 percent.

Coordinating Minister Hartarto also urged the local government to immediately convert hospital beds to 40 percent of the total bed capacity at hospitals.

Local governments are also mandated to ensure that daily oxygen supply is available in all hospitals by reporting through SIRS Online and coordinating with the Health Ministry for oxygen stocks.

“The government has taken precautionary measures and immediately sent additional oxygen assistance since based on reports, several areas are still experiencing a shortage of oxygen supply, especially in North Kalimantan,” Hartarto pointed out.

The government also mapped out producers and industries for oxygen supply in Kalimantan, including those from Samator Bontang, Samator Kutai, Pupuk Kaltim, and Kaltim Methanol Industry.

The Indonesian government has also accelerated the vaccination program in numerous regions in Indonesia and will distribute 1.7 million doses of the vaccine until the end of August.

The number of vaccines will be added to the remaining stock from the local government for about 400 thousand doses, so that the number of doses to be injected in the Kalimantan region in August 2021 reaches around 2.1 million doses. (INE)

Source: Antara News