Day: March 4, 2022

Some 800 foreign tourists from Singapore are scheduled to visit Nongsa Sensation in Batam City and Lagoi in Bintan District with a travel bubble scheme until May 2022, Riau Islands Tourism Service Head Buralimar stated.

“Tourists have purchased tickets to visit Batam and Bintan in the near future until May 2022,” Buralimar noted in Tanjungpinang, Friday.

The head noted that out of a total of 800 foreign tourists, as many as 300 people will visit Nongsa Sensation, Batam City. Meanwhile, the remaining 500 people will visit the Lagoi tourist area in Bintan District.

“All tourists will depart from the Tanah Merah Port in Singapore,” he affirmed.

Buralimar also remarked that on February 23-25, 2022, some 50 foreign tourists from Singapore had visited Nongsa Sensation, Batam City, while the number of foreign tourists having visited Bintan until February 26 had reached 90 people.

“This is the first foreign tourist visit after two years of the pandemic,” he noted.

He affirmed that based on the evaluation, no problems were so far encountered in tourists visits to Batam and Bintan.

“No foreign tourists have been found exposed to COVID-19,” he stated.

On a separate occasion, Riau Islands Governor Ansar Ahmad expressed optimism that the number of Singaporean foreign tourists visiting Riau Islands would increase to support revival of the tourism industry that had been impacted by the pandemic for almost two years.

Ahmad also urged the government of Singapore to increase the quota of foreign tourists visiting the Riau Islands, from 300 people per week to three thousand people per week.

“For now, the quota for tourists visiting Riau Islands is 300 people per week. In future, we hope that the number would be increased to revive our tourism and economy,” he noted.

Source: Antara News

The COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc globally, including in Indonesia. It has claimed many lives, increased the health burden, and weakened economic movement.

However, it has also brought an important lesson, which has led to a new milestone in Indonesia’s history: independent vaccine development.

In the years prior to the pandemic, Indonesia never developed vaccines from scratch, especially with a formula developed by domestic researchers.

The COVID-19 pandemic provided the momentum to Indonesia to begin creating its own vaccine; This is expected to lead the nation to vaccine sovereignty, according to observers.

This is important since Indonesia has a massive vaccine requirement: The archipelagic country is home to a large population of around 270 million people. Thus, the nation’s vaccine needs are large.

Indonesia needs at least 540 million vaccine doses to ensure its entire population is fully vaccinated against COVID-19. And that’s not counting booster doses. As of Wednesday (March 3, 2022), 54.15 percent of Indonesia’s population has received two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Currently, all vaccines being used in the country have been obtained from overseas. However, this poses some problems. It is difficult to fully rely on supplies from abroad at a time when COVID-19 vaccine producers can serve only a small fraction of the total world population.

As countries across the world need vaccines, the small number of producers can affect access, equity, and speed of vaccination in countries around the world, observers said.

As a result, there is a huge gap between the supply and global vaccine needs due to the limited number of vaccine manufacturers. Statistics have shown that access to the COVID-19 vaccine is also still limited and not evenly distributed among the world’s countries, especially when it comes to low-income countries.

The distribution of COVID-19 vaccines cannot wait any longer because people’s lives are at stake.

On top of that, there are lingering fears that the SARS-CoV-2 virus could mutate further and potentially create variants that could bypass the immune system after it has been reinforced by vaccination. This would be even more worrying if a variant emerges that is so strong that it renders vaccines useless.

Thus, COVID-19 vaccines must be administered immediately to people to develop immunity against the coronavirus.

Even though there is no single vaccine that can create full or permanent immunity against the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, a vaccine-reinforced immune system can boost antibodies in the body for fighting viral infections so that a person does not fall severely or critically ill, which can increase the risk of death, experts said.

Therefore, Indonesia has started to develop its own vaccines in order to reduce dependence on external stakeholders. At the very least, the vaccines produced domestically should be able to meet the vaccine need within the country.

At present, as many as seven domestic teams, which have been included in the national consortium for the development of the Merah Putih vaccine, are developing the indigenous COVID-19 vaccine.

The seven teams are Airlangga University, Gadjah Mada University, University of Indonesia, Bandung Institute of Technology, Padjadjaran University, former Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology, and former Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI). Eijkman and LIPI have been integrated into BRIN since 2021.

Acting head of the Life Sciences Research Organization of the National Research and Innovation Agency, Iman Hidayat, said that each team is developing the Red and White vaccine using different methods. The vaccine candidates range from vaccines based on an inactivated virus to vaccines based on recombinant proteins.

The fastest progress has been made by Airlangga University, which is collaborating with PT Biotis Pharmaceuticals Indonesia on vaccine development.

Currently, the Merah Putih (Red and White) vaccine whose seeds have been developed by Universitas Airlangga is undergoing Phase 1 clinical trials. Ninety volunteers who are at least 18 years old are participating in the trials.

Meanwhile, other teams are still at the antigen yield optimization stage, and some are conducting preclinical tests, officials said.

The country needs COVID-19 vaccines for early vaccinations and for administering booster shots. A booster vaccine is needed because the immunity formed after the COVID-19 vaccination does not last forever, and it gradually declines in effectiveness against the virus. In order to maintain immunity, it is necessary to re-vaccinate people, experts explained.

Big challenge

The development of the Red and White vaccine in Indonesia is a big challenge for researchers in the country because so far none has the experience of creating a vaccine from scratch, according to head of the National Research and Innovation Agency, Tri Handoko.

The development of an indigenous vaccine would start with domestic researchers making vaccine seed formulas and end with the production of vaccines, he said.

The COVID-19 pandemic has reminded everyone of the importance of mastering science and technology, as well as increasing capabilities and expediting collaboration to create vaccines independently, he added.

The urgent need for vaccines in large quantities for the people in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic has pushed Indonesia to pursue scientific advances so that the government knows the right thing to do and allocates resources for vaccine development, he said.

Although vaccine development needs to be quick during the COVID-19 pandemic due to the urgent need for immunization, researchers and related parties are following all processes in accordance with standard procedures and scientific standards so that they can obtain an emergency-use authorization from the National Agency of Drug and Food Control, he added.

This is being done to ensure that vaccine products are safe and effective and of good quality, Handoko said.

Indonesia’s ability to produce a Red and White vaccine for COVID-19 will be a big asset when developing other vaccines in the future, he pointed out. Even if there is a possibility of a pandemic occurring in the future, Indonesia will be better prepared to deal with it, including preparing the vaccines needed, he added.

“This is a valuable asset for researchers to develop other vaccines,” Handoko remarked.

The development of the Red and White vaccine has brought a truly invaluable lesson and experience for the advancement of Indonesia’s research and innovation, and has shown that it is a valuable future investment for Indonesia.

Source: Antara News

Indonesia will not enter the COVID-19 endemic stage if even one country is trailing behind in terms of tackling COVID-19, according to the government spokesperson for COVID-19 handling Wiku Adisasmito.

“If we cooperate in the global stage and societies throughout the world move in unison, then certainly, we can bring this pandemic to an end together,” Adisasmito stated during an online talk show observed virtually in Jakarta on Friday.

The spokesperson remarked that the COVID-19 pandemic is a global issue that necessitates unified actions globally.

“If the pandemic is over in Indonesia, but some other countries are still struggling to control the pandemic, then the COVID-19 pandemic is not over yet,” he emphasized.

COVID-19 is a highly infectious disease that can spread easily to other regions and countries, as was proven by the Omicron variant, which initially emerged in South Africa and then spread to Indonesia in last November, he stated.

The COVID-19 Delta variant had also been the virus variant that caused the second COVID-19 infection wave in Indonesia in June and July 2021, the spokesperson pointed out.

Adisasmito remarked that the COVID-19 endemic stage could be achieved only if the global community adheres to health protocols enforced in respective countries, such as the requirement to wear a mask and frequent hand washing as well as remind and protect each other from the dangers of the disease.

Residents must also seek accurate information about COVID-19 from official sources, such as government websites, as they need to constantly follow updates about the COVID-19 pandemic and SARS-CoV-2 virus mutations, he noted.

“We need to remind each other (about COVID-19), and we must learn together and not become the know-it-all person,” Adisasmito stressed.

Adisasmito also spoke of being confident about Indonesia being an example to other countries in handling the COVID-19 pandemic, as the country is among the most populous, with different groups living together in harmony.

Indonesians must also be heedful of the conditions of others and not be ignorant to public issues to help end the pandemic, he emphasized.

“As a great nation, we can be an example to help others bring the pandemic to an end. We will enter the endemic stage soon if we also help them,” Adisasmito remarked.

Source: Antara News