Day: September 7, 2021

Vice President Ma’ruf Amin reviewed the implementation of COVID-19 vaccination at the Dental and Oral Hospital, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Indonesia (RSKGM FKG UI), on Tuesday.

During his visit, Amin highlighted the criticality of vaccination as the key to successfully handling the COVID-19 pandemic by building communal immunity or herd immunity in Indonesia.

“The key to successful handling of COVID-19 is strongly influenced by several factors, including the vaccination program, which plays a vital and very important role,” he stated.

Amin appealed to people, who have received the COVID-19 vaccine, to continue to implement strict health protocols.

If a vaccinated person is later confirmed positive for COVID-19, then severity of the disease caused by the virus can be reduced, he pointed out.

“Of course, the implementation of vaccination must be supported by the ability of the government and local governments to increase 3T efforts (testing, tracing, treatment), and the community to remain disciplined in enforcing the 3M health protocols,” he explained.

Vaccination at the RSKGM FKG UI aims to expedite COVID-19 vaccination for the public in order to establish herd immunity.

Based on data from Statistics Indonesia (BPS), Jakarta, with a population of 11.2 million people, will form herd immunity if 8.3 million residents get vaccinated against COVID-19.

The vaccination program at the UI Salemba Campus will take place on September 6-17, 2021, for five thousand participants, who are local residents and the general public. The vaccination activity received full support from the Salim Group and several sponsoring partners.

Source: Antara News

Bangka Belitung (Babel) Islands Governor Erzaldi Rosman Djohan has instructed the district and city governments to promptly use up the stocks of COVID-19 vaccine, as a step to expediting vaccination in the area.

“Do not wait for it. Just expend it. Let the stocks run out, as we have to accelerate vaccination,” Djohan noted on Tuesday.

Djohan instructed Babel’s heads of districts and cities to expend vaccine stocks in response to complaints from the district and city governments regarding the limited availability of the COVID-19 vaccine.

“The central government cannot continue to send vaccines if several regions still have stocks for the next few days,” he added.

The governor targets each region to complete the daily inoculation target of 20 thousand vaccines per day. It is not impossible for Babel to be able to realize 40 percent of the vaccination acceleration program until the end of September 2021, Djohan stated.

“The central government will only send it again if there are two days of stocks left in the area. For that, I emphasize that this week’s stock could be utilized, so that we can request for another stocks again,” Djohan remarked.

According to Djohan, the provincial government will continue to distribute COVID-19 vaccine stocks to regions on the basis of their requirements.

“Currently, vaccination in Babel has reached only 27 percent, and with the acceleration of this vaccination, it can reach 40 percent by next month,” he affirmed.

Head of the Babel Health Service, Andri Nurtito, stated that the available vaccine stocks reached some 43 thousand doses.

“Please utilize the available vaccine stocks until they run out because if stocks are still left in the area at this time, vaccination should have taken place every day. If the vaccination goes smoothly, there will be no more stocks left,” he noted.

Source: Antara News

Indonesia’s COVID-19 condition is better than its neighboring countries, according to Vice Health Minister Dante Saksono Harbuwono.

“At the moment, escalation is still occurring in neighboring countries, such as Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam. However, here, it has started to settle down for us,” Harbuwono noted during an online press conference observed here on Monday evening.

To this end, he cautioned citizens to maintain strict health protocols despite being vaccinated and the number of domestic COVID-19 cases having started to decrease.

Harbuwono pointed out that of all the various handling strategies applied to contain the virus spread, the most important ones comprise epidemiology test, close contact ratio tracing, and vaccination acceleration.

The vice health minister remarked that the public activity restriction (PPKM) level 1-4 should continue to be imposed along with the utilization of digital technology in the implementation of health protocols.

“We have already had the PeduliLindungi application. With this application, citizens can be monitored and then have their mobilization status mitigated and evaluated,” Harbuwono expounded.

He outlined four criteria, specifically green, yellow, red, and black. The black criteria applies to those having positive cases and positive close contact.

“This is evaluated, so that the spread would not occur and to prevent an infection from occurring,” he elaborated.

The vice health minister highlighted that the government had utilized the PeduliLindungi application in six sectors: trade, transportation, tourism, office or factory, religion, and education.

“It will be implemented in several other sectors soon,” he pointed out.

Harbuwono stated that in the PeduliLindungi application, they had identified 1,625 cases that fell into the black criteria.

“Hence, the 1,625 cases are those that did not earlier know or were earlier unaware of being infected with COVID-19 or having come in close contact, but they still roamed the streets,” he expounded.

Source: Antara News

Minister of State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) Erick Thohir has said that post-COVID-19, data will be more transparent and synchronized.

“In post-COVID-19 condition, data will become more transparent whether we want it to or not. Even now, we have to use PeduliLindungi application to enter malls. With this, data synchronization will happen, whether we want it to or not,” Thohir remarked at a webinar here on Tuesday.

The Report of State Officials Wealth (LHKPN) and tax data will become more synchronized post-COVID, which would encourage transparency within and outside government, he opined.

“The key is that openness is something that has to be done. There is a complexity in SOEs, to be honest,” he remarked.

“Much like what has been said by the Deputy of Prevention and Monitoring of KPK (Corruption Eradication Commission), Pahala Nainggolan, there are several SOEs that have not reported their LHKPN,” the minister added.

Therefore, Thohir said that he will contact the SOEs Ministry’s Secretary Susyanto to ensure that the data the ministry has matches with the KPK.

The LHKPN has not been submitted because there are several SOEs that are undergoing mergers, he explained. In addition, there are also around seven to eight SOEs, under the PPA-Danareksa cluster, that will be closed since they are no longer operational since 2008, he informed.

Thohir noted that, in future, the data with the ministry will be synchronized to reduce time wastage and ensure removal of unnecessary data pertaining to SOEs that have closed operations.

In the beginning, the process may seem complex and there may be hesitation in its adoption, but it is something that needs to be done so that SOEs can gradually support the one data transparency program, said Thohir.

Source: Antara News

The Ministry of Transportation is readying several measures to prevent the new COVID-19 variant, Mu, from entering Indonesia through requisite handling of transportation hubs — international airports and international harbours — serving international routes.

“In accordance with the directive given to us by Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo to prevent the entry of the new COVID-19 variant into Indonesia, we have prepared several precautionary measures,” Minister of Transportation Budi Karya Sumadi noted in a written statement observed here on Tuesday.

Sumadi stated that the ministry was endeavoring to boost internal consolidation and to coordinate with related parties, such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Harbour Health Office (KKP), Ministry of Health, COVID-19 Handling Task Force, and the Directorate General of Immigration.

“We will hold a meeting to coordinate with related parties, such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, COVID-19 Handling Task Force, and Directorate General of Immigration, to determine the required handling steps to prevent the entry of a new COVID-19 variant,” he affirmed.

Sumadi noted that the Ministry of Transportation will coordinate with the army and the police for security purposes, seek the opinion of epidemiology experts, and uncover information regarding other countries’ experiences.

In addition, the Ministry of Transportation is communicating with the operators of transportation facilities and infrastructure to consistently maintain health protocols and to raise awareness of the new COVID-19 variant.

Earlier, during the Public Activity Restriction (PPKM) evaluation meeting on Monday, President Joko Widodo advised to be cautious of the new COVID-19 strain, the Mu variant, or B.1.621.

The president requested the Ministry of Transportation to assist in preventing the entry of the new variant into Indonesia.

Source: Antara News

President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has said he expects to see 70 percent of the population in each province vaccinated against COVID-19 by the end of 2021 to meet the goal of achieving herd immunity.

In a written statement received from the Press Bureau of the Presidential Secretariat here on Tuesday, the President expressed the hope that the target would be achieved by each province, including West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), which is scheduled to host the International World Superbike event in November this year.

“We want (the population in) each province to be vaccinated at least 70 percent by the end of this year. We hope that before the event opens, especially those around the venue, can all be inoculated,” Widodo remarked during a vaccination event held by K.H Syamsuddin Islamic boarding school, Ponorogo district, East Java.

In a dialogue with regional representatives, he also requested that vaccinations continue to be accelerated so that COVID-19 transmission in Indonesia can be checked immediately.

Meanwhile, representatives from West Nusa Tenggara affirmed that they are ready to speed up daily vaccinations to 15 thousand to support the International World Superbike event.

“We are ready and committed. The National Defense Forces, National Police, government, vaccinators, and our 500 health facilities will (support the vaccination acceleration),” a representative from West Nusa Tenggara said.

Meanwhile, representatives from Palangkaraya city said that the vaccination program in Central Kalimantan is being bolstered by dividing the province into three vaccination zones.

“There is an eastern zone in Das Barito, a central zone in Palangkaraya and surrounding areas, then a western zone in Kotawaringin,” a representative from Palangkaraya city said.

The representative also informed that vaccination coverage in Central Kalimantan has continued to increase. According to him, the target achievement has been the result of synergy and collaboration between the National Defense Forces, National Police, and vaccinators.

“There are those who came from the province, the National Defense Forces, House of Representatives, Regional State Intelligence Agency, and port health office. The mass vaccinations will benefit from their support,” the representative added.

Source: Antara News

Indonesian Vice President Ma’ruf Amin spoke of the government readying a detailed scenario for handling COVID-19 that is expected to become endemic in the country.

“The government is preparing the outline in a more comprehensive way to deal with the endemic period,” Amin stated after visiting the COVID-19 Vaccination Center at the UI Salemba Jakarta Campus on Tuesday.

According to the vice president, the government had forecast COVID-19 to linger on until and unless the right, effective medicine against the virus was discovered.

To end the pandemic gradually and inch towards the endemic phase, Amin noted that the government will continue to apply health protocols and expedite COVID-19 vaccination.

“We will continue to impose health protocols and organize vaccination events. If people have been administered the second dose, we will consider giving a booster dose, but temporarily, only health workers are eligible,” he expounded.

The provision of additional doses of COVID-19 vaccine or booster is one of the strategies undertaken by the government to reduce the pace of the virus and move to the endemic phase, he stated.

Amin remarked that several countries had begun to consider injecting boosters to the public to boost endurance or immunity against COVID-19.

“The government is still laying out what type of scenario. What is certain is that the government has continued to enforce strict health protocols and administer up to three doses or booster shots of the vaccination,” he pointed out.

On the same day, the vice president reviewed the implementation of COVID-19 vaccination at the Dental and Oral Hospital of the University of Indonesia’s Faculty of Dentistry in Central Jakarta.

During his visit, Amin highlighted the importance of vaccination as the key to successfully handling the COVID-19 pandemic by realizing herd immunity in Indonesia.

Furthermore, Amin has encouraged religious figures in Indonesia to play a supporting role in the government’s plan to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 that is projected to become endemic in the near future.

The vice president also invited religious figures to uplift the public spirit in a bid to encourage recovery to reach the stage akin to that before COVID-19 struck.

Source: Antara News