Day: December 10, 2021

The World Health Organization (WHO) has asked Indonesia to help close the financial gap in the handling of the pandemic during its G20 Presidency by raising US$23 billion in funding.

“It requires a US$23-billion investment for this year’s accelerator. It is an urgent and crucial investment that needs to be addressed by the G20 under Indonesia’s leadership during its presidency,” Bruce Aylward, senior advisor to the director-general of the WHO, said at a media briefing here on Friday.

The funding must be utilized to close the current financial gap, which is causing uneven recovery efforts among high- and low-income countries, he said.

The funds should be used so that low-income countries around the world are able to get a high standard of COVID-19 testing, vaccination, and treatment, he added.

According to Aylward, the financial gap must be closed considering that the current inequality in pandemic management, such as the unbalanced distribution of vaccines, is still very noticeable in low-income countries.

There are many low-income countries where the vaccination rate is below 40 percent, even though the WHO’s directive requires second vaccine doses to be administered to 40 percent of their total population by the end of the year, he said.

According to Aylward, the weakest countries are where the virus will take advantage of and create new problems.

Economic recovery will not happen if the world still responds and handles COVID-19 unevenly, he added.

Furthermore, he stressed that the world will not experience long-term sustainable growth if it does not fix the inequality in the capacity of managing COVID-19.

Nevertheless, he said he believed that the G20 members can procure the US$23 billion in funding, taking into account members countries who contribute significantly to the global economy.

“US$23 billion sounds huge, but it is small for high-income countries. We need the international investment if we want to manage this crisis,” Aylward said.

Source: Antara News

A researcher at the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) Amin Soebandrio accentuated the importance of the COVID-19 full dose vaccination coverage for people in Indonesia.

A minimum 70 percent of the Indonesian population must be vaccinated, with a full dose of the COVID-19 vaccine to form herd immunity in the country.

“The ability to form herd immunity is important for now,” Soebandrio said here on Friday.

However, the immunity developed from the COVID-19 vaccination does not last forever to protect people from the infection. Over time, the immunity that is formed from both the COVID-19 vaccinations and natural infection will decrease.

According to research, immunity after a full dose of COVID-19 vaccination can last up to 12 months. After that, the immunity will decrease, he remarked.

However, the body that already has the ability to form antibodies will have memory cells to re-form immunity to fight the same virus.

Hence, if people get infected by the coronavirus, their memory cells will remember and try to form immunity to fight the virus infection.

“Immunologically, our immunity has a memory that can remember. That is an important factor that later if we are infected with the same or similar virus, the body will form immunity more quickly,” Soebandrio noted.

Hence, in the midst of the limited availability of the COVID-19 vaccine, he emphasized that vaccination priority at this time is accelerating COVID-19 immunization through administration of a complete dose rather than a booster injection.

By forming herd immunity in the community, people can build a shield to prevent the virus that causes COVID-19 from finding new human hosts to infect the body and mutate.

Currently, the Indonesian government continues to bring in COVID-19 vaccines from various sources to meet the needs of the community and increase the achievement of COVID-19 vaccination. The government is also developing a domestic vaccine called Merah Putih vaccine.

Source: Antara News

Third dose vaccinations or ‘boosters’ for the general public will be commenced on January 1, 2022, Deputy Minister of Health Dante Saksono Harbuwono has said.

“Booster vaccinations will commence on January 1, 2022. Currently, we are preparing the strategy because booster vaccinations will multiply our vaccine needs,” he said here on Friday.

Two strategies are being prepared for administering booster vaccines to the general public: BPJS Health Contribution Assistance Recipients (PBI) will be given the vaccines free of charge and non-PBI recipients will be given paid booster vaccinations.

Booster vaccinations will involve private healthcare facilities, while the Indonesian Military (TNI) and the National Police (Polri) will be involved as vaccinators in the government’s health facilities to continue second dose vaccinations, he said.

He affirmed that the Ministry of Health, in collaboration with academics, is conducting a statistical analysis test of the serosurvey.

“A serosurvey is a way to see the number of antibodies in a person who has been infected with COVID-19 or has been vaccinated. It will be able to identify the level of immunity in the community,” he explained.

The results of the serosurvey will guide more in-depth government policies regarding technical guidelines and the implementation of booster vaccination for the public, the deputy minister added.

To boost immunity against COVID-19, the Indonesian government launched a nationwide vaccination program on January 13, 2021.

According to data provided by the Health Ministry, as of December 10, 2021, nearly 145,085,912 citizens have received their first COVID-19 shot, while 101,794,596 have been fully vaccinated against the virus.

Earlier, President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) had asked his administration to prepare booster vaccinations, which are planned to be administered to Indonesians starting January 2022.

Source: Antara News

The Health Ministry is aiming to complete administering second dose COVID-19 vaccinations to targeted recipients by March-April 2022, spokesperson for COVID-19 handling Dr. Reisa Broto Asmoro has said.

By that time, the government is targeting to vaccinate 70 percent of the population, she informed.

“The Ministry of Health has targeted complete vaccination of 208.2 million citizens by March or April next year,” she said at a virtual press conference here on Friday.

The government is targeting to give 208,265,720 Indonesian people both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine as part of efforts to build herd immunity against the coronavirus, she explained.

According to the Health Ministry, 145,085,912 people or 69.66 percent of the targeted recipients have received the first dose as of 12 p.m. local time on Friday,

Meanwhile, the recipients of two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have reached 101,794,596 people, or 48.88 percent of the target, the ministry added.

With this achievement, Indonesia is the fifth country with the highest complete vaccination coverage after China, India, the United States, and Brazil, Asmoro explained.

She then invited all parties to help make the COVID-19 vaccination program a success, either through participating in government programs or the mutual cooperation mechanism promoted by the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KADIN) and the private sector.

She underlined the importance of vaccines that have been proven effective in reducing morbidity and mortality upon COVID-19 exposure.

In addition, vaccination is now becoming a requirement for domestic and overseas travel, she noted.

“We have successfully achieved this vaccination coverage by the optimal efforts and collaboration from all parties, especially the Indonesian Defense Forces (TNI), National Police (Polri), regional governments, state-owned enterprises (SOEs), religious and social organizations, many private sector players, as well as Indonesian citizens in general,” she added. (INE)

Source: Antara News

Lemongrass leaves can be an alternative to mosquito repellents post floods on Lombok Island, Indriyanto S.Hut, M.P., a forestry professor at Mataram University, has said.

“These lemongrass leaves are very environment-friendly,” he told ANTARA here on Friday.

Mosquitoes are a big problem for affected residents post floods, he noted. However, not many are aware of the advantages of lemongrass leaves, he said.

For using lemongrass leaves as mosquito repellents, the oil needs to be extracted from them first, the silviculture lecturer said.

“A person will feel hot when the oil is rubbed on their body, but its benefits are amazing,” he explained.

According to Indriyanto, obtaining lemongrass leaves is not hard, especially in the Pusuk forest area on the borders of West Lombok and Kekait, North Lombok.

In fact, he added, the process of turning fragrant lemongrass leaves into oil was known by ancestors living on Lombok Island, but the knowledge has begun to fade.

Hence, some lemongrass trials have been developed independently in South Ampenan, Mataram, over half a hectare of lowlands, and medium-level plains in Sedau village, Narmada sub-district, West Lombok district, he informed.

The trials are supported by the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) in Indonesia and the Small Grants Programme (SGP) Indonesia, he said. The aim is to use the demo plots for educational purposes, he added.

Our field school not only teaches cultivation techniques but also the oil distillation process for obtaining lemongrass oil, besides studying existing compounds, he said.

Another benefit of lemongrass plants is that they protect soil against erosion, he informed. “These plants can be grown in between durian trees or others in the Pusuk forest area,” he added.

Therefore, lemongrass should be cultivated again because their strength in repelling mosquitoes has been tested through experiments, he said.

“Lemongrass leaves cultivation maintains the community’s resilience when hit by disasters,” Indriyanto added.

Several regions on Lombok Island were inundated on December 6, 2021. Some residents even lost their homes and were evacuated to shelters.

Source: Antara News