Day: February 6, 2022

The Health Office of North Sumatra recorded that the bed occupancy rate (BOR) in the province’s hospitals is still low despite the increasing number of daily COVID-19 cases.

Secretary of North Sumatra Health Office dr. Aris Yudariansyah here on Sunday informed that the bed occupancy rate in North Sumatra reached 3.5 percent.

“Hospital occupancy rate is relatively low. Commonly, patients who are undergoing treatment at hospitals have mild symptoms,” he said.

Yudariansyah affirmed that the percentage of occupied beds for COVID-19 patients in North Sumatra is still considered safe.

“This is far below the safe limit set by WHO, which is 60 percent,” he said.

Last week, North Sumatra recorded an increase in the number of daily COVID-19 cases, which consequently affected the BOR in the province.

From January 29, 2022, to February 4, 2022, the province recorded 812 new COVID-19 cases, according to the local COVID-19 task force data.

“The figure has quadrupled from the previous 148 cases in the period of January 22 to January 28, 2022,” he said.

To this end, he reminded the community regarding the importance of complying with the “5M” health protocols, namely, wearing masks, washing hands, maintaining social distance, reducing mobility, and avoiding crowds.

“Comply with health protocols so that the number of COVID-19 cases will not increase more,” he appealed.

The first case of COVID-19 was confirmed in Indonesia in March 2020. According to data provided by the COVID-19 Handling Task Force, as of February 4, 2022, the country had recorded a total of 4,446,694 confirmed COVID-19 cases, 4,161,987 recoveries, and 144,453 deaths.

Source: Antara News

The Bandung city government in West Java is limiting face-to-face schooling to 50 percent of the class capacity in response to a rise in COVID-19 cases.

The policy was set forth in the Bandung Mayor’s Regulation No. 13 of 2022 on the fifth round of amendment to the Bandung Mayor’s Regulation No. 103 of 2021, Secretary of the Bandung City Administration Ema Sumarna said here on Sunday.

“We must anticipate and adjust to this. But in case of escalation (in COVID-19 spread) that we do not expect it is possible to amend the regulation again,” he said.

The policy to limit face-to-face learning is contained in Article 6 of the Bandung Mayor’s Regulation No. 13 of 2022 under which face-to-face schooling can be held at a maximum of 50 percent of the class capacity.

The head of the Bandung City Education Office will later decide the number of schools allowed to hold 50-percent face-to-face schooling at 50 percent of the class capacity. Earlier, 350 schools were allowed to hold 100 percent face-to-face schooling.

The regulation also allow schools that cannot hold face-to-face class to implement remote learning.

Ema said the policy is designed to stay alert for the recent increase in COVID-19 cases.

The COVID-19 cases in Bandung can increase ten folds in one week unless necessary steps are taken, he said.

Source: Antara News

Vice President Ma’ruf Amin has appealed to public, especially Indonesian young generation, to not only feel content with the minimum standards of local capabilities, but to push themselves to comply to the international standards in terms of pandemic handling.

“Do not feel content with the minimum standards of local capabilities, but push ourselves to be able to comply the international standards,” Amin noted in his speech during the second batch graduation of the Syeikh Nawawi Tanara Fiqh College held virtually here on Sunday.

Complying the international capability standard can be manifested in the COVID-19 pandemic handling, he mentioned.

To this end, Indonesia should be ready to face various global issues on COVID-19 since the countries around the world have intensified cooperation on the pandemic handling, Amin highlighted.

“The world has become more unified, so that we need to be ready to face various global issues. For instance, we are currently still dealing with the COVID-19 cases not transmitted locally, but internationally,” he explained.

The vice president emphasized that the pandemic handling is not merely health issue, but also the religious issue since handling the COVID-19 means saving lives.

“Self-protection, based on the religious view, is obligatory. It means we must protect ourselves from the upcoming health problems since COVID-19 is not a suspected danger anymore, but it is real,” he remarked.

Having treatment when exposed to COVID-19 is mandatory since it is such a religious issue in line with the sharia law to protect ourselves from outbreak, he added.

Source: Antara News

Mohamed bin Maiden (62), a Malaysian citizen, succumbed to COVID-19 at Tamiang Layang Hospital, East Barito District, Central Kalimantan Province, on Sunday, according to dr. Vinny Safari, the hospital’s director.

Maiden, the General Manager of PT Sawit Graha Manunggal (SGM), arrived at the hospital on Sunday at 3 Western Indonesian Standard Time (WIB) , and was rushed to the emergency room, as he was suffering from short of breath.

“After being treated in the emergency room, at around 3:35 WIB the patient was pronounced dead and given a statement of death confirming that he was infected with COVID-19 based on an antigen swab test,” dr Safari said here on Sunday.

The report about the death of the Malaysian man was submitted to the East Barito COVID-19 Task Force, and later forwarded to the Telang Siong Health Center for epidemiological investigations and tracing.

It was not known whether the patient died of Omicron variant or not because Tamiang Layang Hospital does not have a COVID-19 device to detect the new variant.

Samples from the deceased, however, had been sent to Banjarbaru, South Kalimantan, to determine the COVID-19 variant.

The body was handled in accordance to the COVID-19 SOP at the Tamiang Layang Hospital while the process of returning the remains to Malaysia was underway.

Herbet, on behalf of spokesman of PT SGM Rico Tarigan said the family of the deceased in Malaysia had been informed about the sad news.

“The family has been informed and the body will be returned to Malaysia,” Herbet said .

Source: Antara News

For more than two years, the COVID-19 pandemic has hit Indonesia. Not only affecting the health of 4,480,423 people across the country, the disease caused by SARS-COV-2 virus has also killed 144,497 people, according to data from COVID-19 Task Force as of February 5, 2022.

It has not only disrupted public health, the pandemic has also caused an economic crisis, millions of people are unemployed and increased poverty rates in almost the entire country.

Besides having a tremendous impact on health and the economy, the pandemic has also affected social life, education, security, religion, tourism and other sectors in every line of people’s lives. It does not only affect people in urban areas, as people in rural areas are also affected by the pandemic.

To overcome it, the government has taken many steps, but the pandemic caused by the SARS-COV-2 virus continues to mutate to form new virus variants and continues to spread throughout the country, causing a prolonged pandemic.

Hence, the government needs the right solution to suppress the spread and end the pandemic.

A number of steps have been taken to deal with the pandemic, starting from testing, tracing and treating (3T) that have been carried out since the beginning of the pandemic, then the government also calls on the public to strictly implement health protocols, including washing hands with soap, wearing masks, keeping distance from other people, away from crowds, and also limiting mobility (5M).

Besides the 3T and 5M policies, the government has also implemented a number of policies to limit people’s mobility so that the potential spike in cases due to the spread of the virus, which is transmitted through droplets, can be suppressed. The restriction policies include large-scale social restrictions (PSBB) and then the implementation of restrictions on community activities (PPKM) which are carried out in stages according to the case level in a certain area.

Then, the government has also intensified vaccination for COVID-19 with a target of 208 million people, including vaccinations for medical personnel, public workers, elderly community groups as well as vaccination for children.

The COVID-19 vaccine is aimed at reducing the severity when a person is infected with the disease. The COVID-19 vaccine also serves to increase protection from COVID-19 disease.

Booster vaccine

The government has made various efforts to deal with the virus among others by accelerating the vaccination drive, but the COVID-19 vaccine has an effectiveness for about six months, causing protection from potential exposure to the virus decreases.

Meanwhile, in the midst of ongoing vaccination efforts by governments in various countries to provide protection and create herd immunity for the community, a new variant of the coronavirus Omicron is spreading around the world at an unprecedented speed, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Hence, to prevent the spread of the new variant, the government is launching a third dose of vaccination or better known as a booster vaccine to extend and increase vaccine protection from exposure to SARS-CoV-2 .

“So even if there is a decrease due to virus transmission, but then we give a booster. That’s the goal, to increase protection again,” said the spokesperson for the COVID-19 Vaccination in the Health Ministry when contacted by Antara, Jakarta, Monday.

The booster vaccine is given to groups of people aged over 18 years, with a target of around 180 million people and prioritized for the elderly and those with comorbidities.

“So all districts and cities can already give this booster vaccination. But the elderly and comorbid sufferers still come first,” he said.

For dosing, there are two types of booster vaccination, comprising heterologous and monologue booster vaccinations. Monologue booster vaccination is when the type of vaccine at the third dose is the same as the type of primary vaccine for the first and second doses. While a heterologous booster vaccine is when the type of vaccine given for the third dose is different from the type of vaccine given at two doses first.

For people who receive the monologue booster vaccine they will get one dose of the vaccine. While those who received the heterologous booster vaccine were given only half the dose.

Indonesian Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin stated the reason for the government to provide a half-dose heterologous booster vaccine is for safety.

“There has been a lot of research abroad on heterologous vaccines. This is a preference because it provides multiple protection. So the antibody which is then injected with a heterologous booster will be richer than the homologous vaccine,” he said.

In the meantime, for people who want to get a booster vaccine, they should have received at least the full dose of the vaccine six months earlier. The public can register it through PeduliLindung application or by coming directly to the vaccination site provided, than they need to show an identity card and a complete vaccine dose certificate.

Although many efforts have been made by the government to protect the public from the pandemic, public is still reminded to continue to apply strict health protocols since the vaccines cannot prevent transmission, but rather to reduce the severity when someone is infected with the virus.

Health protocols that are strictly implemented are believed to be effective in protecting the body from exposure to COVID-19.

Source: Antara News