Day: November 29, 2021

The West Nusa Tenggara Regional Police (Polda NTB) is pursuing massive COVID-19 vaccination for the community to prepare the region for the 2022 MotoGP racing event.

“Next year’s MotoGP is forecast to bring more participants, six times bigger than the previous World Superbike (WSBK). To this end, we must expedite vaccination in an effort to achieve herd immunity in NTB,” Head of Public Relations of the NTB Regional Police Senior Commissioner Artanto stated on Monday.

Artanto is optimistic that the community would support the vaccination program by visiting the vaccination location readied in every sub-district.

Artanto also ensured the readiness of vaccine stocks in NTB.

“With this effort, we hope that all NTB residents would be fully vaccinated to achieve herd immunity in the region and be able to curb the spread of COVID-19, especially for the MotoGP next year,” he remarked.

From the achievement of the simultaneous COVID-19 vaccination in NTB, data on November 27 recorded that NTB had achieved satisfactory results.

From the daily target of 61 thousand people, as many as 64,377 doses of vaccine were administered to the public.

“This means the vaccination rate had reached 106 percent on November 27, thereby exceeding the target,” Artanto affirmed.

The highest vaccination coverage was in West Sumbawa District, at 161 percent; Mataram City, 159 percent; North Lombok District, 152 percent; Dompu District, 144 percent, Bima City, 128 percent; Sumbawa District, 113 percent; West Lombok District, 107 percent, Bima District, 106 percent; East Lombok District, 90 percent; and Central Lombok District, 85 percent.

Artanto lauded the sound collaboration among the National Police (Polri), Indonesian Military (TNI), health workers, and the local government owing to which the vaccination target in NTB was achieved.

“Moreover, thank you to the public that understands the importance of COVID-19 vaccination, which plays an important key in the success of achieving this target,” he added.

Source: Antara News

The 2022 State Revenue and Expenditure Budget prioritizes six policies, with the main focus remaining COVID-19 control, President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has stated.

“We will focus on six main policies. First, to continue to control COVID-19 while still prioritizing the health sector,” he said at the Merdeka Palace, Jakarta, on Monday.

He delivered the statement during an event attended by cabinet members and other state officials.

“Second (focus), maintaining the sustainability of social protection programs for the poor and vulnerable,” President Jokowi informed.

Third, improving or developing human resources to make them superior, he said. Fourth, pushing for the development of infrastructure and encouraging adaptation to technology, he disclosed. Fifth, strengthening fiscal decentralization to increase and distribute welfare among the regions, he added.

“The sixth is to continue budgeting reform by implementing ‘zero-based budgeting’ so that spending is more efficient,” he remarked.

In 2022, ministers and regional heads must continue to prepare themselves to face the risk of the COVID-19 pandemic, which is still posing a threat to the global community, including Indonesia, President Jokowi said.

“Uncertainty in the health and economic fields must be our basis for planning and implementing programs,” he said.

The 2022 State Budget was designed and will be implemented in a responsive, anticipatory, and flexible manner, in response to the uncertainty of 2022, he explained.

“Always innovate and anticipate various changes that occur while maintaining good governance,” he remarked.

The President said that the 2022 state budget has a crucial role.

“As the G20 Presidency, we must demonstrate our ability to deal with climate change, especially reductions in emissions and the movement to develop the environment in a sustainable manner. We must show real action toward (realizing) a green and sustainable economy,” he added.

The 2022 State Budget has been stipulated in Law Number 6 of 2021, which came into force on October 27, 2021. The law regulates the 2022 state revenue and expenditure budget.

Law Number 6 of 2021 states that the 2022 state budget includes a planned state revenue of Rp1,846.1 trillion and state expenditure of Rp2,714.2 trillion.

The budget deficit reached IDR 868 trillion or 4.85 percent of gross domestic product, while the deficit was targeted at 4.85 percent of GDP.

The projected economic growth in 2022 is estimated at 5.2 percent, while the poverty rate is expected to decline to 8.5–9 percent.

Furthermore, the open unemployment rate is expected to range between 5.5–6.3 percent, and the inequality ratio to fall to 0.376– 0.378. Meanwhile, the human development index is targeted to increase to 73.41–73.46.

Source: Antara News

Indonesia’s Health Care and Social Security Agency, BPJS Kesehatan, has said that the 38th ASSA Recognition Award 2021 that it recently received has encouraged it to continue delivering the best possible services to its customers.

“The award is an appreciation for the collaborative works of all parties, including our stakeholders,” BPJS Kesehatan president director Ali Gufron Mukti said in a statement that ANTARA received here on Monday.

He said he appreciated all those who contributed to BPJS Kesehatan’s achievement, including members of the supervisory board and stakeholders such as BPJS Watch and Jamkeswatch.

As per an announcement posted on BPJS Kesehatan’s official website, the ASEAN Social Security Association (ASSA) has awarded the agency the 38th ASSA Recognition Award 2021 in the Continuous Improvement Recognition Award category.

Mukti accepted the award recognizing the agency’s achievement for innovations in its online health consultation and administrative service from ASSA chairman Heng Sophannarith in a virtual event last week (November 26, 2021).

Mukti said the COVID-19 pandemic has restricted access to health facilities for many beneficiaries of the Health Insurance and Healthy Indonesia Card (JKN-KIS) Program owing to their concerns over the coronavirus.

“This condition has pushed the BPJS Kesehatan to take strategic measures to ensure the welfare and satisfaction of our customers through a digital service innovation,” he added.

The digital service innovation has resulted in the availability of online health consultation and administrative services such as the “Pelayanan Administrasi Melalui Whatsapp” (PANDAWA), “Chat Assistant JKN” (CHIKA), “Voice Interactive JKN” (VIKA), “BPJS Kesehatan Care Center 165”, and “Mobile JKN”, he noted.

The virtual awards event was attended by representatives from Indonesia, Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Source: Antara News

A third wave of COVID-19 during the year-end holidays could see the number of cases reaching 70 thousand in a moderate scenario and 400 thousand in the worst-case scenario.

Head of the data and IT division of the COVID-19 Handling Task Force Dr. Dewi Nur Aisyah made the prediction during an online press conference on the ‘Analysis of the 3rd Wave of COVID-19 in Indonesia’ on Monday.

The prediction regarding the potential increases in cases was made with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) by using data and variables related to COVID-19 handling in Indonesia, she informed.

In an ideal scenario, using the variable where herd immunity has been formed, people’s mobility is relatively low, there is strict implementation of health protocols, and there are no new variants, active cases are predicted to continue to decline until the beginning of 2022, she said.

However, this scenario has been eliminated since the new variant of Omicron has emerged and herd immunity is not expected to be established in December 2021, Aisyah added.

The second scenario shows the potential for active cases peaking to around 70 thousand, with herd immunity not formed, high population mobility, and good community adherence to health protocols, she said.

“We have not formed herd immunity because we have not achieved vaccination target by 70 percent in December 2021. Our people mobility is quite high, but our health protocols implementation is also good. With this scenario, we might have 70 thousand new cases,” she explained.

The third scenario predicts 260 thousand new cases if group immunity is not formed, public mobility is high, and there is negligence in health protocol implementation, she said.

The gap between the peak predicted for the third wave and the second wave is quite wide, with the difference pegged at 200 thousand cases, Aisyah said. The level of health protocol compliance will play a major role in the case tally, she added.

Therefore, she urged the public to remain disciplined in implementing the health protocols to prevent a significant increase in COVID-19 cases.

Meanwhile, in the worst-case scenario, she predicted that Indonesia would have 400 thousand new cases if herd immunity is not established, community mobility is high, health protocol implementation is low, and a new variant appears which is 40 percent to 50 percent more infectious than the previous one.

However, any potential spike in active cases in the third wave is expected to remain lower than that witnessed in mid-2021, she said. This is due to the wide coverage of COVID-19 vaccinations in the community compared to the middle of 2021, she explained.

Source: Antara News

Director of control and prevention of directly infectious diseases at the Health Ministry, Siti Nadia Tarmizi, has said that HIV infections were 47 percent lower in 2020 compared to 2010.

“HIV infections in 2020 were 47 percent lower than in 2010. We hope to maintain this sloping number,” Tarmizi remarked at the 2021 World AIDS Day webinar on Monday.

She said she hopes that the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic will not be widespread so that new HIV infections and even deaths due to HIV can be suppressed.

In 2020, it is estimated that there were 543,100 people in Indonesia living with HIV, she noted. A total of 30,100 people with HIV were estimated to have died, but only 10,103 deaths were reported to the authorities, she said.

A total of 149,883 people living with HIV spread across 502 districts/cities had ready access to antiretroviral (ARV) treatment, she informed.

“We must accelerate our efforts to break the chain of HIV transmission. There are many things we must do, such as learning from Thailand, to quickly reduce the number of HIV cases,” Tarmizi remarked.

By 2030, Indonesia is targeting to have zero new cases of HIV infections, no AIDS-related deaths, and no discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS (ODHA), she said.

This can be achieved if 95 percent of ODHA are aware of their HIV status, 95 percent of ODHA are on ARV treatment, and 95 percent of ODHA have their viral load suppressed, she added

“Although in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, we must continue to strengthen and pay attention to HIV treatment,” she said.

She further explained that HIV is a virus that attacks the immune system.

“While AIDS is an advanced condition when someone is already infected with HIV and their condition becomes worse. There are a collection of symptoms and physical signs in the patients. The virus takes advantage of the patient’s weak body condition which then causes the disease,” she informed.

Tarmizi reminded that the entire community should build awareness about this disease, especially since the virus is not immediately detectable.

“Even though the virus has infected us, there is such a thing as a window period. When we are infected with the HIV virus, it will take more than three weeks, until three months for the virus to be detectable in the laboratory,” she noted.

Source: Antara News