Day: December 7, 2021

The Yogyakarta COVID-19 Task Force is targeting to complete the second dose of vaccination in the city by the end of 2021 to achieve herd immunity.

“Hopefully, by the end of December, we would be able to complete vaccination for the first and second doses,” Head of the Yogyakarta COVID-19 Handling Task Force Heroe Poerwadi stated on Tuesday.

Until December 6, some 603,149 people had received the first dose of vaccination, out of which 567,293 had been fully vaccinated.

Poerwadi remarked that residents, who had yet to receive the second dose of vaccination, were mostly due to the waiting period for their upcoming vaccination schedule.

“There are also people with health problems that cannot receive vaccination, so their second dose of vaccination must be postponed,” he added.

Meanwhile, health workers, supporting personnel, and volunteers, who were directly involved in the COVID-19 handling process, had received the booster vaccine.

A total of 1,181,038 COVID-19 vaccine doses were administered in Yogyakarta.

“The achievement of vaccination for each community group is also quite good. Everything reaches over 100 percent for health workers, the elderly, and the general public,” Poerwadi stated.

Most of the vaccines used for the COVID-19 vaccination in Yogyakarta is Sinovac vaccines, reaching over 350 thousand doses, each for the first and second doses.

In addition, the Yogyakarta government is administering doses of the AstraZeneca, Sinopharm, Moderna, and Pfizer vaccines, he expounded.

Although the vaccination achievement in Yogyakarta is higher than the number of residents in the city, Poerwadi reminded the public to always implement strict health protocols in their daily activities.

“Many activities have started to run again, but do not forget to implement strict health protocols despite the residents being vaccinated. There is also a new threat in the form of the new variant called Omicron,” he added.

Source: Antara News

Health protocols and vaccinations can help prevent new coronavirus mutations, spokesperson for COVID-19 vaccinations at the Health Ministry, Siti Nadia Tarmizi, has said.

“The most important thing is the implementation of health protocols and vaccinations,” she stressed during a dialogue on ‘Discipline of Masks and Vaccinations to Prevent Omicron’ on Tuesday.

By following the health protocols, people can prevent the virus from entering their body so the virus will not be able to find a place to breed, she explained.

“It is important that we implement the health protocols while limiting mobility,” Tarmizi said.

She further said that vaccinations can prevent the emergence of new positive cases.

“If everyone has been vaccinated, herd immunity will be formed. Vaccination is able to prevent possible variants from emerging. The new variant may emerge because the virus infects or transmits to the human body,” she explained.

The entry of new variants of the COVID-19 virus such as Omicron in Indonesia will depend on people’s behavior in suppressing virus transmission, she said.

“People must obey the health protocols and immediately receive vaccination against COVID-19 to curb the spread of the virus,” she added.

The Delta variant is currently the most widely circulating variant and the dominant COVID-19 virus in Indonesia, she said. At this time, there are 23 derivatives of the Delta variant, she informed.

She emphasized that the COVID-19 pandemic is not over, although domestic cases are relatively under control.

“This pandemic is not over, although this week we saw a decrease between 200–300 cases reported per day. Deaths reported for one week were on average 8–10 people. The transmission rate is relatively low at this time but we must still be careful,” she added.

Meanwhile, data from the Health Ministry showed that as of Tuesday evening, more than 143 million people or 68.90 percent of the targeted recipients have received the first dose of vaccination, and more than 100 million people or 48.03 percent have been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus.

Source: Antara News

The State Intelligence Agency has expedited the COVID-19 vaccination program in a number of areas in West Java where the vaccination rate has yet to reach 70 percent.

Head of the West Java State Intelligence Agency, Brigadier General Deddy Agus Purwanto, said that one of the reasons several regions have less than 70-percent vaccination rate is that they have many people living in remote areas.

“We do this because the vaccine percentage has not yet reached 70 percent, especially in remote areas and (areas that are) far from the center of government,” he noted in a statement released in Bandung, West Java, on Tuesday.

The regions include Cirebon, Sukabumi, and Kuningan districts, he informed.

As per data from the Health Ministry, the vaccination rate in those three regions is still below 70 percent, he said.

The vaccination rate in Cirebon district has reached 56.28 percent, Sukabumi district 58.91 percent, and Kuningan district 58.10 percent, he added.

BIN is aiming to deliver vaccines to a total of 7,150 people in those areas, Purwanto informed. They will either get the vaccines at the outlets or under a door-to-door vaccine delivery initiative, he said.

He said boosting vaccinations is important to hasten the creation of herd immunity to suppress the death rate.

“Currently, we are targeting how to reduce the death rate, so we enter densely populated housing,” he added.

Aside from West Java, the State Intelligence Agency has been continuously pushing vaccinations in many remote areas, such as in Southeast Sulawesi and Bangka Belitung, he noted. The effort has been undertaken to meet the national target of 70 percent vaccinations by the end of 2021, he added.

Source: Antara News

Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs Retno Marsudi emphasized the need for global partnerships to bolster the capacity of developing nations in order to bring the pandemic to an end.

Marsudi also stressed the importance of achieving the vaccination target of 40 percent of each country’s population by the end of 2021 set by the World Health Organization (WHO).

She made this statement during a virtual USAID development ministerial meeting on COVID-19 initiated by the United States and led by USAID Administrator Samantha Power, held on Monday night (Dec 6).

“Currently, the global vaccination gap is still wide, with low-income countries receiving only 0.6 percent of all available vaccines. As many as 96 countries have not yet met the WHO target of vaccinating 40 percent of their population by the end of 2021 despite only a few weeks being left,” Marsudi noted in a statement, Tuesday.

During the meeting, Marsudi highlighted two efforts to respond to the issue, specifically in the short term, related to equitable access to vaccines, and in the long term, building a stronger health resilience.

In the short term, the minister remarked that the main focus was how all countries can intensify cooperation to meet the WHO targets.

This can be achieved through accelerating global access to vaccines, including by sharing doses.

“The doses given must have a long expiry date, and there should be a clear distribution timeline. Not much information is available about the Omicron variant. The policies of countries in the future should not further complicate efforts to achieve vaccine equality,” Marsudi stated.

Second, strengthening the absorption capacity in recipient countries on account of the fact that several nations do not have adequate resources and infrastructure to distribute vaccines to their population.

In this case, she shared Indonesia’s experiences in distributing vaccines to all Indonesian islands.

Meanwhile, for the long term, Foreign Minister Marsudi emphasized the importance of strengthening the involvement of developing countries in the global vaccine supply chain.

This can be achieved by diversifying global vaccine manufacturing, establishing regional vaccine production and distribution centers, facilitating technology transfer, and increasing access to vaccine raw materials.

The USAID meeting on COVID-19 was attended by some 20 ministers and nine representatives of international organizations from various countries, including the Director General of WHO and CEO of GAVI, the President of the World Bank, and the Director General of UNICEF.

Source: Antara News

Achieving herd immunity can reduce the risk of mutation of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19, a researcher from the National Research and Innovation Agency’s Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology has said.

“The more people possess immunity, the less chance the virus will spread. The sooner herd immunity is achieved, the lower the chance the virus will mutate,” Armin Soebandrio told ANTARA here on Tuesday.

A virus mutates due to replication or when the viral load increases within a host’s body as a way to survive, he explained.

Mutation occurs when the virus makes a new copy of its genetic material during replication, he said.

When the virus is given a chance to replicate, the risk of mutation increases, he added.

Replication occurs when the virus manages to infiltrate a new cell, he said. Once the virus successfully infects a new host, then it has an opportunity to replicate, he added.

In theory, if we can prevent the virus from finding a new host, then mutation can be slowed down, he explained.

Improving immunity can prevent a virus from entering a new host, he added.

Immunity can be bolstered through vaccinations, or it can be built by receiving COVID-19 medication or through natural infection, primarily in individuals with no symptoms (OTG) or who do not appear to be sick, he said.

“When more people develop immunity, that is when herd immunity happens,” Soebandrio noted.

To this end, vaccinations should be expanded across Indonesia to build immunity among the people, which would prevent the virus from infecting new hosts, replicating, and mutating, he said.

“When more people are immune, meaning the (when there is) realization of herd immunity, then the virus will not be able to easily enter another person and mutate,” he affirmed.

Source: Antara News

Although the government has decided against imposing Level 3 community activity restrictions (PPKM) during the year-end holidays, health protocols will continue to be enforced, the Riau Islands COVID-19 Task Force has said.

With the COVID-19 situation under control, people will be able to carry out their activities as usual, but they should not give in to euphoria yet, spokesperson for the task force, Tjetjep Yudiana, said in Tanjungpinang on Tuesday.

There are only six active cases of COVID-19 in Riau Islands, five of which have been reported in Batam city and one in Karimun district, he informed. There are no active cases of COVID-19 in Lingga, Natuna, Anambas, and Tanjungpinang, he said.

“Although active COVID-19 cases have drastically decreased, there should not be a 2022 New Year’s party that causes people to crowd/gather,” he cautioned.

Yudiana informed that the government is still pushing efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19, even more so now that the Omicron variant has been detected in Singapore, which borders Riau Islands.

The Instruction of the Home Affairs Ministry Number 62 of 2021 regarding the prevention and control of the coronavirus disease 2019 at year-end has become the basis for this decision, he added.

The regulation details the requirements for domestic long-distance travel during the year-end holidays, he said. Everyone who travels to other areas or between islands is required to be fully vaccinated and carry a negative antigen result taken a maximum of one day before departure, he added.

Adults who have not received a complete COVID-19 vaccination or cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons are not allowed to travel long-distance, he said.

He informed that children may travel under stricter conditions: They are required to submit a PCR test result, which will remain valid for three days for air travel, or an antigen test result, which will remain valid for one day for land or sea travel.

“We urge residents to continue to adhere to the health protocols when traveling outside the area,” he added.

Source: Antara News

Indonesia received an additional 1.5 million doses of the Moderna vaccine from the United States government on Tuesday as part of the 148th vaccine consignment.

“Today, Indonesia once again received vaccine donation from the United States government through the COVAX facility,” the Ministry of Health’s vaccination spokesperson Siti Nadia Tarmizi informed in a written statement issued here on Tuesday.

The United States government has provided vaccine donations to Indonesia several times, she noted.

According to Tarmizi, the two countries are closely cooperating with one another, including in pandemic handling, and are working on improving their relations.

“For this arrival, the Indonesian government expresses its gratitude to the United States government,” she remarked.

Securing vaccine stocks is crucial for Indonesia so that quick distribution can be carried out, she added.

Vaccine equity has become important for Indonesia to be better protected from the threat of COVID-19 that continues to persist to this day, she said.

Domestically, the vaccination effort continues to be expanded, Tarmizi informed.

“Currently, the government is trying to increase vaccinations in the outer and remote regions, reaching which presents its own challenges,” she elaborated.

The increasing COVID-19 infections in a number of countries should prompt all parties to become more disciplined in protecting themselves by getting vaccinated and following the health protocols, she said.

“The people’s obedience in implementing the health protocols and vaccinations has become the key to controlling the pandemic,” she affirmed.

Earlier on Sunday, Indonesia had received 1.9 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccines through a direct purchase agreement, director-general of information and public communication at the Communications and Informatics Ministry, Usman Kansong, said.

“With the arrival of the 147th stage amounting to 1,932 thousand doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, the total number of vaccine doses that Indonesia has received, both in finished and bulk form (raw materials), has reached 395,544,580,” Kansong informed in a press release issued here on Monday.

Source: Antara News