Day: March 13, 2022

A flood swamped homes in Sintuwu Village, Palolo Sub-district, Sigi District, Central Sulawesi Province, on Saturday evening, displacing at least 60 people who were forced to take refuge in higher grounds.

The flooding was triggered by incessant heavy rain that had fallen since Saturday afternoon, and caused Kana’a River to spill over its bank, Secretary of the Sintuwu rural administration Safir said here on Sunday.

“Kana’a River overflows and triggers a flood reaching a height of up to adult’s waist,” Safir added.

The flood inundated residential areas and forced the 60 people from 10 households to flee to safer places. Meanwhile, flooding triggered by heavy rains that lashed on Wednesday night (March 9), swamped residential areas and roads in Baturaja City in Ogan Komering Ulu District, South Sumatra Province.

Floods submerged the Ahmad Yani Street in East Baturaja District as well as residential areas in West Baturaja Sub-district, Gunalfi, an officer of the Ogan Komering Ulu Disaster Mitigation Office (BPBD), stated on Thursday.

At least 88 houses inhabited by 150 families in Talang Jawa Village, West Baturaja, were flooded , with waters reaching up to a meter in height.

“Fortunately, no casualties were reported in this disaster,” he stated.

The daily activities of local residents were disrupted, as several roads were submerged by flood waters reaching heights of between 30 cm to a meter.

The BPBD deployed officers to flood locations to help residents affected by the flooding.

Source: Antara News

The Indonesian government is monitoring the development of the Deltacron variant of COVID-19, a combination of Delta and Omicron mutations which has been detected in Europe. the Health Ministry said.

“Its development is still being monitored. Because there is no evidence of an increase in transmission, severity, and others,” Spokesperson for the COVID-19 Vaccination at the Health Ministry, Siti Nadia Tarmizi, said through a written statement received here on Sunday.

Scientists had confirmed a new COVID-19 variant, which was a combination of Omicron and Delta variants, with cases reported in several European countries.

The variant, dubbed ‘Deltacron’, was confirmed by genome sequencing conducted by scientists at IHU Mediterranee Infection in Maseille, France. The variant has been detected in several areas in France.

According to the international database Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID), cases of the Deltacron variant were also found in Denmark and the Netherlands.

Other than those, two cases were identified in the United States and a reported 30 cases were identified in the United Kingdom.

These variants were hybrids born through a process called recombination, in which two viral variants infect individuals simultaneously, thus resulting in exchange of genetic material and creating new variants.

Tarmizi ensured that the government continued to monitor the condition while at the same time promoting COVID-19 vaccination to boost the vaccination rate.

“Yes, it means that in dealing with any potential transmission, the expedition of booster and primary vaccinations must be (done),” she reminded.

An expert from YARSI University, Prof Tjandra Yoga Aditama, stated that Deltacron was a combination of BA.1 and B.1617.2, and currently listed as variant surveillance report.

He stated that Deltacron had been reported in Cyprus since 2021. However, many thought this virus was simply a dirt in the laboratory.

Source: Antara News

The National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) is conducting simultaneous COVID-19 vaccination in Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara on March 12-17, ahead of the Mandalika MotoGP event to anticipate the arrival of foreign and domestic tourists.

In a statement received here on Sunday, BNPB Head Lieutenant General Suharyanto, said the activity aimed to protect the people, especially Lombok island residents, from the threat of COVID-19.

This activity is a follow-up to President Joko Widodo’s directives to expedite vaccination, including for the third dose as a booster. The effort is conducted ahead of the Mandalika MotoGP which will take place on March 18-20, 2022.

The program consists of a static vaccine booths and a mobile vaccine booth, so that people who are far from a static booth do not need to visit the location. The vaccinator team will visit people in several predetermined villages.

As many as 50 vaccinators are divided into ten teams, which were dispatched from main location at Mandalika Hospital, Pujut Sub-district, Central Lombok. Each of the teams consists of five members and is accompanied by authorities from each village to secure the event as well as gather the people to vaccinate.

The vaccines comprising the first, second, third or booster doses of vaccine are administered to 80 people from each village.

The brands of vaccine are Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca. People who have been vaccinated will also be registered in the PeduliLindungi application and receive a digital certificate.

The program has received a positive response from the people, both tourists who were visiting and also local tourism service providers.

“Thank you. Through this vaccination program, I don’t have to worry and can trade here. Hopefully with the vaccine I will always be healthy,” said Nurmiyati, one of the tourism service providers in the Kuta Mandalika Beach area.

The agency, COVID-19 Task Force, and the West Nusa Tenggara provincial government will also distribute masks on March 15, 2022.

The mask distribution program is part of the central government’s efforts to promote safe tourism as well as preparation for the 2022 MotoGP event.

Source: Antara News

Floods and landslides hit three hamlets in Sintuwu Village, Palolo Sub-district, Sigi District, Central Sulawesi Province, on Saturday evening.

“Flooding has occurred since Saturday at 5:30 p.m local time, inundating residents’ homes and public facilities,” Mohammad Safir, secretary of the Sintuwun rural admistration, said here on Sunday.

The flood current brought wood and mud, making the flood impact worse, he added.

At least 63 homes were inundated, several of them were damaged, including one seriously damaged.

Three bridges were hit by landslide and one bridge was swept away by flooding, cutting off land access to and from two out of the three hamlets.

The flood inundated residential areas and forced 60 people from 10 households to flee to safer places.

The Sigi Disaster Mitigation Office (BPBD) being assisted by police and military personnel, helped evacuate the flood victims to safer places and mitigate the impacts of the flooding and landslide.

The local authorities planned to set up a public kitchen to feed the displaced people.

The flooding was triggered by incessant heavy rain that had fallen since Saturday afternoon, and caused Kana’a River to spill over its bank.

“Kana’a River overflows and triggers a flood reaching a height of up to adult’s waist,” Safir added.

Source: Antara News

More than 80 percent of chief executive officers (CEOs) were reluctant to talk about their mental health related challenges in their company, according to a survey conducted by Executive’s Global Network (EGN), a peer-based network of executive members.

Co-Founder and Managing Director EGN Singapore Nick Jonsson in a press statement received here on Sunday, said that the number rose from 59 percent in December 2020 due to the fact that many senior executives then felt isolated due to the pandemic.

The survey was initially conducted in 2019 through its Singapore office revealing that 30 percent of senior executives were suffering from executive loneliness.

“Senior executives are suffering and falling off the radar. However, due to expectations and the stigma associated with mental health, they do not have the platform to talk about it. These situations may occur as business leaders are continuously demanded to be on top of things by their company and always able to make the right decisions,” said Jonsson.

Many do not understand how leadership is always a learning process and even those at the top still find the need to learn and seek for expert opinions to discuss possible solutions, he highlighted.

However, it is not always easy for senior executives to find a sparring partner whom they can level with and therefore drives the necessity of a peer network platform that facilitates the exchange of knowledge and ideas for people in top positions, according to the co-founder.

To this end, through its peer network of executives, EGN supports business leaders to be no longer on their own as they are now able to draw on the experience of others in their group and allow them to learn from peers of a similar level who work for similar-sized companies with similar scale, challenges and problems, he said.

Meanwhile, ATALIAN Global Services Indonesia CEO Yohanes Jeffry Johary said that leaders had to face more challenges that drove them to easily and quickly adapt to changes amid the pandemic.

“Leaders are considered effective if they are able to navigate through a global crisis in parallel with maintaining day-to-day operations. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, a lot of us are faced with unprecedented changes and challenges, and one of them is the urgency to meeting the digital transformation goals, which has forced countless organizations to accelerate the adaptation,” Johary said.

According to a recent forecast by International Data Corporation (IDC), global spending on the digital transformation of business practices, products and organizations will reach up to US$ 2.8 trillion in 2025 with an annual growth rate of 16.4 percent over 2021-2025 as organizations pursue a holistic digital strategy for people, processes, technology, data and governance.

McKinsey Global Survey of executives also revealed that their companies have accelerated the digitization of their customer and supply-chain interactions and of their internal operations by three to four years.

Source: Antara News