Day: September 16, 2021

The Boyolali District Health Office, Central Java Province, aims to administer 17,250 doses of the first vaccine to the general public in a hundred villages spread across 22 sub-districts in the area.

Acting Head of the Boyolali District Health Office Insan Adi Asmono stated in Boyolali on Thursday that for expediting administration of the first dose of vaccination, he had targeted 17,250 recipients per day in 115 villages spread across 22 sub-districts.

“Of the 115 villages where simultaneous vaccinations were conducted, each village received an average of 150 doses per day, so the total could reach the targeted 17,250,” he noted.

Asmono remarked that the Boyolali district government continued to push the vaccination program to create herd immunity, so that the community was protected from the transmission of COVID-19.

In addition to the vaccination in Boyolali on Thursday, September 15, 2021, inoculation activities were also conducted by Projo volunteers, with a target of 1,500 doses for the community in Banyudono Sub-district and one thousand doses in Wonosegoro. Asmono noted that an average of 17,250 doses per day only came from the public health office, not including volunteers or the national defense force and police force.

As of Wednesday, September 15, 2021, some 265,663 people, or around 31.8 percent received the first dose of the vaccine, while the second dose was given to the targeted 127,354 people.

The Boyolali District Health Office had earlier confirmed it will deploy village midwives to support the completion of the COVID-19 vaccination program.

According to Asmono, a new strategy was employed for expediting vaccination in Boyolali, wherein the village midwives helped to offer vaccinations, and each village was considered as a team.

In addition to providing COVID-19 vaccination services at public health centers spread across 20 sub-districts, he noted that the health office had deployed 267 village midwives to help conduct vaccinations.

“Should it run effectively, each team (administers) 100 doses of the vaccine, so that the average can be 267 teams multiplied by 100 doses, so the total reaches 26,700 doses per day,” according to Insan.

The Boyolali District Health Office expects to reach 50 percent of the target by the end of September 2021.

The Boyolali district government continued to urge vaccinated people to always follow health protocols through a disciplined approach and remain vigilant despite a decline in the number of COVID-19 cases in the region.

Source: Antara News

Vice President Ma’ruf Amin has said the implementation of COVID-19 vaccinations in agglomeration areas must be carried out quickly and uniformly so there are no gaps in the process.

“Our vaccination program is now aiming at these surrounding areas (agglomeration areas),” he remarked while visiting the An-Nawawi Tanara Islamic Boarding School, Serang, Banten on Thursday.

He said that most of the achievements in accelerating vaccinations in agglomeration areas have been reported in central areas, including Jakarta, Bandung, Greater Solo, Greater Semarang, and Greater Malang.

“For the central agglomeration area, it has actually been fulfilled, it has been achieved. Jakarta is even more than 100 percent. Residents with Jakarta ID cards and those who work and study in Jakarta have been vaccinated,” he explained.

Meanwhile, in the supporting areas of the Indonesian capital, vaccination coverage is still low, he noted.

“Greater Tangerang, Bekasi, Bogor, Depok it (vaccination coverage) is still low,” he said.

Therefore, he appealed to all levels of local governments to work hard to accelerate the delivery of COVID-19 vaccines to the public.

With the acceleration of vaccination, the determination of the level of implementation of public activity restrictions (PPKM) can be eased, he said.

“So that later the level of PPKM can be lowered. Our provisions are that from the third to the second level, 50 percent (of the community) must have been vaccinated and from the second to the first level, 70 percent must have been vaccinated,” he elaborated.

Meanwhile, Indonesia has received an additional 274,950 doses of the Pfizer vaccine in finished form, officials informed. With the arrival of the latest vaccine batch, the total vaccine doses Indonesia has received so far in bulk and finished form has reached around 240 million, a senior government official said.

The government has ensured the availability of safe COVID-19 vaccines and can support the acceleration of vaccination, with a target of two million people per day, director general of information and public communication at the Communication and Informatics Ministry, Usman Kansong, noted in a press statement issued on Wednesday.

The government is also working hard to bring in vaccines and immediately distribute them to all vaccination sites in Indonesia, he said.

Kansong confirmed that the government will currently focus on pushing vaccinations for the elderly and the youth. Just 26.43 percent of the elderly population has received the first vaccine dose, while 18.73 percent have been administered the second dose, he informed.

He said vaccinations for the elderly group are important since this group has a fairly high mortality rate after contracting COVID-19.

Meanwhile, 11.83 percent of youngsters have received the first vaccine dose, while 8.12 percent have been given the second dose, he said.

Source: Antara News

A total of 128 children in Jambi Province lost their biological parents to COVID-19.

Secretary of the Jambi Population and Civil Registry Social Service, Fadli, confirmed on Thursday that hundreds of children had lost their parents to COVID-19. The social affairs office would provide assistance every month to such orphaned children, he added.

Some 128 children have lost their biological parents, the data for which was obtained from the districts and cities in Jambi Province. Data collection was conducted following a letter from the Social Affairs Ministry, so that a record is maintained of orphans to receive assistance.

“Hence, at this time, we, along with the social affairs office in districts and cities across Jambi Province, continue to record children whose parents have died due to exposure to COVID-19, and along with teams on the field continue to process data that then assesses the veracity of the information,” he noted.

Fadli hopes that the 128 orphaned children would not lose hope and remain patient. The number of children, who lost their biological parents, will continue to increase, and the Social affairs office is committed to helping the children by providing Rp300 thousand (about US$21) per month.

Data on children who lost their biological parents indicated 37 kids in Jambi City, 16 in Tanjabbar, 15 in Bungo, 12 in Sarolangun, 10 in Muaro Jambi District, eight in Sungai Penuh, six in Batanghari, and five in Kerinci.

“We also have a special children social center to care for kids neglected due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as it is included in the disaster category and, of course, it has an impact on the psychology of the child when the biological parent dies. It will be taken care of as best as possible. As for the child’s school, of course, each district and city in Jambi Province has a respective authority to handle it,” Fadli noted.

Source: Antara News

Mothers must increase their awareness on sexual violence against girls, an expert on women and children from Riau province, Hj Septina Primawati Rusli, has said in response to a recent rape case involving four Papua students.

“This case is very sad, especially since her (one student’s) uncle himself was so willing to take the high school student to unscrupulous officials to ruin the child’s future,” Rusli said in Pekanbaru on Thursday.

She made the statement in reference to local media reports on the alleged rape of four 16-year-old students from Jayapura district, Papua province. Their alleged perpetrators have been identified by their initials asas GOY (head of the Papua PUPR Service), PM (a politician), MI (aide to the head of the PUPR Service), VY (head of the Papua PUPR Office’s unit), and JSA

(uncle of one of the victims).

The modus operandi used by the perpetrators was highly unusual, Rusli said. The uncle of one of the victims allegedly invited her to Jakarta without the knowledge of her family, then took her to a bar, and forced her to drink alcohol, she elaborated, adding that his actions were condemnable.

If she was his niece, the uncle should have sought permission from her parents as is the tradition among the Riau Malays, she said.

“Indeed, because they are teenagers, at first of course they are happy and have no negative thoughts about their uncle, let alone being taken for a walk, but the uncle’s treatment of his niece is clearly very bad and very immoral,” she remarked.

She also slammed the officials named in the case for cruelty toward victims, saying they were “low in faith” to have treated children in this manner.

“They probably brushed off the fact that it was a huge sin,” she remarked. She said she was sure that they would not want a similar crime to befall their children, brothers, or sisters.

“For people who have no morals, it is possible to do evil like that,” she remarked.

She urged law enforcement officers to immediately resolve cases of sexual crimes against minors.

“This case must be resolved by the police. Please help the victims, and the Child Protection Commission should immediately step down to provide assistance to the victims,” she demanded.

She also said she expected the latest case to be resolved so that the victims would get the justice they deserve, since their future has been cast under a shadow.

Source: Antara News

President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has stated that door-to-door vaccinations for people in Aceh Province were part of the efforts to expedite the national vaccination campaign.

“Today, I am in Aceh along with the chief of the State Intelligence Agency (BIN) to ensure that the door-to-door vaccination activities are accelerated,” Jokowi remarked while reviewing door-to-door vaccinations at Lambroe Bileu Village, Kuta Baro Sub-district, Aceh Besar District, on Thursday.

The head of state noted that door-to-door vaccinations were part of the efforts to provide direct inoculation services to the people of Aceh.

“Vaccination is one of the keys to stemming the spread of COVID-19. We hope that by accelerating vaccination, we can contain the spread (of COVID-19),” he stated.

With increasingly more number of people receiving the COVID-19 vaccination, the nation is expected to be well-protected against COVID-19, he noted.

Some 72 thousand people, including 42 students and Islamic boarding school students in Aceh, were vaccinated on Thursday.

In the course of the visit to Aceh, Jokowi also held a dialog with local residents and distributed books among children in the village.

Shortly after reviewing the vaccination of people in Lambroe Bileu, President Jokowi and his entourage observed the vaccination of students of the Istiqamatuddin Darul Mu’arrif Islamic boarding school.

Source: Antara News

Spokesperson for the COVID-19 Handling Task Force, Prof. Wiku Adisasmito, has said he is optimistic that G20 events held under Indonesia’s Presidency in 2022 will run smoothly.

“We can ensure that this event can be carried out as well as possible,” he said at a press conference that was accessed online from here on Thursday.

In order for the agenda to run smoothly, the government will continue to strive to keep COVID-19 cases in Indonesia under control, he added.

“Indonesia will host this prestigious event. Indonesia is responsible for this event, and the government is trying to keep (COVID-19) cases stable,” he said.

President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) will take over the G20 Presidency from the Italian Prime Minister at the closing of the G20 Summit in Rome, Italy, at the end of October this year.

Indonesia will hold the G20 Presidency from December 1, 2021 to November 2022. The theme for the summit in 2022 is ‘Recover Together, Recover Stronger’.

This will be the first time Indonesia will host the G20 Summit since the association, which accounts for 85 percent of the world’s gross domestic product (GDP), was founded in 1999, Adisasmito noted.

Therefore, he said, the Indonesian government is focusing on achieving a mortality rate of less than two percent, active cases of less than 100 thousand cases, and a positivity rate of less than five percent.

“The government will continue to do its best,” he remarked.

Earlier, President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) said Indonesia is not among the ten countries with the highest number of COVID-19 cases globally, even though the nation’s population is the fourth largest in the world.

“Alhamdulillah (thank God), cases of COVID-19 continue to show a downward trend. We are very optimistic, but we must always be vigilant. As the country with the fourth-largest population in the world, Indonesia is not included in the top 10 (countries) with the highest number of cases in the world,” the President said.

Source: Antara News

The Religious Affairs Office of Lebak District, Banten Province, is targeting to maximize the coverage of vaccination to support acceleration of the nation’s economic recovery in the area.

“We are highly committed to supporting the vaccination program,” the office’s Head of Administration Sudirman stated here on Thursday.

The spread of COVID-19 has battered the economy, so the vaccination program is deemed necessary to boost the national economic recovery and also to prevent the spread of the deadly disease.

He urged employees to comply with health protocols by wearing masks, maintaining distance, washing hands, reducing mobilization, and avoiding crowds.

He lauded educators and staff members in madrasa (Islamic schools) as most of them had undergone vaccination.

Limited face-to-face learning was implemented in some 50 percent of the madrasa. It is possible that in future, teaching and learning activities will be conducted as normal.

Currently, he noted that the number of the office’s employees reached some 10,000 people including eight thousand teachers .

However, out of the 10 thousand, around 40 percent, or four thousand people, have been vaccinated. To date, community health center services were still running.

“We are targeting a maximum of 100 percent of all employees here to get vaccinated,” he said.

Sudirman noted that vaccination can prevent the spread of the virus.

The workers there are keen to undergo vaccination.

“All employees are vaccinated to build immunity,” he explained.

Source: Antara News