Day: March 15, 2022

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Srigading: Ancient temple site to get heritage status

An official from the Malang District authority has confirmed that the site of an ancient temple in Srigading village, Malang District, East Java, will be designated as a heritage tourism site.

Malang District Head M. Sanusi said that archaeologists have been successful in conceiving the approximate form of the temple that dates back to the 10th century, and the site will be opened as a tourism destination.

“The experts have been successful in conceiving the approximate form of the ancient temple, and we will reconstruct the temple. I hope the site will be a new historical tourism destination in Malang,” Sanusi informed in Malang District on Tuesday.

The district head said that the Srigading temple site will be managed by a village-owned enterprise and is expected to benefit local residents.

The district authority will also provide supporting facilities to the archaeological site that has been excavated three times, Sanusi said, adding that the authority will install a lighting system at the site.

“We will install a solar-powered lighting system at four points of the site to ensure the archaeological site is secured and maintained well,” he remarked.

Meanwhile, Head of the Srigading Site Excavation Team of the East Java Cultural Heritage Preservation Agency (BPCB) Wicaksono Dwi Nugroho said that the agency needs to coordinate with the relevant institutions regarding the progress of the excavation, as the archaeological site is currently located on privately owned land.

“We have reported the technical requirement on the site’s land status that is currently private-owned, and we have also requested roof and fence facilities to protect the weakened bricks and to mark the complex boundary,” Nugroho informed.

The Srigading archaeological site, earlier known as Cegumuk by locals, was discovered in 1985. At the time, a yoni stone and several sculptures were found at the mound-form site.

Experts from East Java BPCB confirmed that the temple facing eastward towards Mount Semeru was used as a place of worship by Siwaist Hindus.

Source: Antara News

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Citarum river clean-up progress at 80%: minister

Eighty percent of waste in Citarum River has been cleaned up under the Fragrant Citarum Program by Waste Water Management Installations, Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan has informed.

“This visit is one part of the Fragrant Citarum Program. From the reports I received, the level of cleanliness of the Citarum River, including flood suppression, has reached 80 percent. Only 20 percent remains,” the minister said while reviewing the program in Bojongsoang Sub-district, Bandung District, on Tuesday.

Fragrant Citarum is a program conducted by the government to manage waste around Citarum River. It is part of efforts to sanitize water sources as well as foster people’s awareness about their environment.

The government will push this program to its completion to suppress the risk of flooding—one of the tangible benefits of the program.

Pandjaitan said the waste dumped into the Citarum River was completely cleaned at the Bojongsoang Waste Water Management Installation.

The government will build solar panels on 8.7 hectares of Cieunteung Retention Lake and 4.7 hectares of Lake Andir, he informed.

“From these two lakes, 100 MW of solar electricity can be produced, which can also be used to produce carbon credits worth US$10.4 million per MW (which) can also be used for electrical energy for nearby factories,” he said.

West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil, who accompanied the minister to observe the program’s progress in Bojongsoang district, said that it has been four years since the issuance of Presidential Decree No. 2018.

Waste water management installations offer benefits, not only for people of Bandung city, but also for residents living in the Bandung basin area, he said.

“Even though the assets belong to the city, the benefits are not only for Bandung city. This is the district’s territory, so this location will be coordinated by the governor to benefit the five areas in Bandung Basin,” he said.

The five areas in question are Bandung District, Bandung City, West Bandung District, Cimahi City, Garut District, and Sumedang District.

Source: Antara News

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Voting date for 2024 elections already agreed upon: House Speaker

The Indonesian Government, the House of Representatives (DPR), and the General Elections Commission (KPU) have reached an agreement on the voting date for the 2024 general elections, House Speaker Puan Maharani informed.

“The government, DPR, and KPU have agreed that the general elections will be held on February 14, 2024,” Maharani informed while visiting the Office of the Nahdlatul Ulama’s (NU) Central Executive Board in Central Jakarta on Tuesday.

However, she stopped short of commenting on the discourse on the postponement of 2024 general elections.

The elections will be held in accordance with the schedule that the relevant institutions have agreed upon, she said.

“With regard to the 2024 general elections. I say that the DPR’s position aligns with the mechanism,” she said.

Chairman of the National Awakening Party (PKB) Muhaimin Iskandar had proposed that the 2024 general elections be postponed, arguing that the public did not want post-pandemic economic recovery to be disrupted if the elections were held in February 2024.

Chairman of the National Mandate Party (PAN), Zulkifli Hasan, and chairman of the Golkar Party, Airlangga Hartarto, had also expressed support for the postponement of the elections.

Source: Antara News

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University of Indonesia’s medical students shine at EAMSC

Students from the University of Indonesia’s Faculty of Medicine (FKUI) have won first place in the Conference Scientific Paper category of the 2022 East Asian Medical Students’ Conference (EAMSC) Online Academic Competition.

“Reflecting on the current pandemic conditions, which constantly (needed) to be suppressed, various efforts have been made by the governments of many countries in formulating proper interventions to reduce COVID-19 cases,” Ayers Gilberth Ivano Kalaij who represented his winning team, remarked here on Tuesday.

Kalaij’s teammates were Nathaniel Gilbert Dyson (FKUI 2019), Valerie Josephine Dirjayanto (FKUI 2019), and Stella Kristi Triastari (FKUI 2019).

Compliance with the #stayathome intervention, such as quarantine, was still low, has said.

Therefore, he explained, his team performed a meta-analysis of factors that influence people’s compliance with the #stayathome intervention.

His team also provided recommendations to improve compliance with the related regulations, in the hope of lowering the cases of COVID-19.

In addition to Kalaij’s team’s victory, another team led by Syaharani Martiza Hakim (FKUI 2020) won second place in the Conference Film Auvert category.

Hakim’s team which consisted of Cokorda Istri Agung Dewinta Adnyani (FKUI 2020), Alisha Damara Praditya (FKUI 2020), and Muhammad Candrika Agyawisnu Yuwono (FKUI 2020), created a work of film titled A Bitter Truth, that was featured at the 2022 EAMSC.

“A Bitter Truth is an Auvert film inspired by the reality of daily socio-economic conditions of Indonesian people (that have been affected) by the COVID-19 pandemic. We hope that the public can consider the economic challenges faced by others, especially the Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs),” Hakim said.

At the same competition, another team consisting of Nathaniel Gilbert Dyson (FKUI 2019), Valerie Josephine Dirjayanto (FKUI 2019), Aldithya Fakhri (FKUI 2019), and Stephanie Amabella Prayogo (FKUI 2019) won third place in the Conference Scientific Poster category.

The title of their poster was “Effectiveness of Digital Handwashing Intervention as a Breakthrough to Control COVID-19 and Transmissible Disease Outbreaks: A Meta-Analysis of Clinical Trials”.

“These achievements should be an inspiration for other students to bring the name of FKUI, UI, and Indonesia on the international stage,” Syam said.

Source: Antara News

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Endemic indicator still under discussion by experts: ministry

The latest indicator for COVID-19 endemicity has remained a topic for discussion among experts, the Health Ministry’s spokesperson, Siti Nadia Tarmizi, stated during a press conference on Zoom on Tuesday.

“We certainly do not have to hurry, because we are still in the transition process to normalization,” she remarked.

“Endemic does not mean that cases no longer exist because, as we know, to make a disease disappear requires a long time, even hundreds of years,” she said.

Currently, Indonesia is still at pandemic status, based on a number of indicators stipulated by President Regulation No. 24 of 2022 on Determining COVID-19 Pandemic Factual Status in Indonesia.

Within the regulation, there are a number of indicators that show that the pandemic in Indonesia has not yet been brought under control.

“We know that the case count is still high with around 9 thousand confirmed cases,” Tarmizi noted.

“In essence, we observe that the several reproduction number indicators are still above one per thousand population,” she added.

In addition, the positivity rate, or the comparison between the number of COVID-19 positive cases and the number of tests conducted, is still above five percent.

Meanwhile, not all regions have returned to Level 1 Public Activity Restriction (PPKM) status—a level that would indicate the pandemic situation is under control.

“Generally, level status occur within a certain time length, for instance, six months. When many indicator trends show positive result, this means that we are ready to head toward endemic (phase),” she informed.

During the event, Tarmizi reported the development of COVID-19 cases in Indonesia. Within the last three weeks, there has been a decline in the number of new cases in all provinces, she noted.

“For the death count, there are still several provinces that experience an increase,” she highlighted.

The provinces include Aceh, North Sumatra, West Sumatra, Jambi, Bengkulu, and several others.

In addition, the national testing rate has remained above one per thousand population per week, with weekly positivity rate above 13 percent.

“Positivity rate above 5 percent still happens in 29 provinces. Meanwhile, bed occupancy rate for patients treatment above 30 percent occurs in East Nusa Tenggara, North Kalimantan, and Yogyakarta,” Tarmizi added.

Source: Antara News

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Indonesia Reports 9,629 Newly-Confirmed COVID-19 Cases, 271 More Deaths

Indonesia yesterday confirmed 9,629 new COVID-19 cases, raising its tally of infections to 5,900,124, the country’s health ministry said.

According to the ministry, the death toll from COVID-19 in the country rose by 271 to 152,437, while 39,296 more people recovered during the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of recoveries to 5,434,729.

As the Indonesian government is accelerating its national vaccination programmes, to curb the spread of the virus, more than 193.47 million people have received their first doses of vaccines, while over 151.48 million have taken the second doses.

Aiming to fully vaccinate 208.26 million people in the country, the government has administered over 359.58 million doses, including the third booster jabs.

Source: NAM News Network

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Bogor to resume offline school as COVID-19 cases decline

Schools of all levels in Bogor City will reopen for face-to-face learning from March 21, 2022—with some restrictions—following the decline in COVID-19 infections in the city, Mayor Bima Arya Sugiarto said.

“As the COVID-19 cases continue declining, we will reopen schools for offline activities. I instruct the head of the municipal Education Office to reopen schools next week,” Sugiarto said during a coordination meeting with municipal staff at Heulang Park in Bogor City, West Java, on Tuesday.

The decision was made after the mayor received the COVID-19 situation report from Bogor Health Office Head Sri Nowo Retno, who also attended the meeting.

Retno informed that the COVID-19 infection surge in Bogor has passed its peak, as the current daily infection rate has declined from 1,117 cases in February 2022 to only 90 this month.

Sugiarto instructed schools to reopen with health protocol enforcement as the city’s activities restriction enforcement (PPKM) status has reached Level 2.

Meanwhile, Bogor Education Office Head Hanafi said that physical attendance will be restricted to 50 percent of the class capacity.

The education office head also confirmed that the agency will notify schools in Bogor to set up health protocol facilities, including temperature check equipment, hand washing facilities, and isolation rooms before they reopen.

Hanafi said that schools will be reopened for students of all levels, including primary school levels 1, 2, and 3, which were excluded from the last school reopening.

Despite the Joint Ministerial Letter No. 2 of 2022 permitting the city to implement full offline school reopening, the authorities will remain prudent in reopening schools, he added.

“We need to consider all aspects thoroughly; hence, we will not promptly reopen schools at full capacity,” Hanafi said.

Source: Antara News

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Egg Of Endangered Javanese Eagle Hatches In Indonesia

An egg of endangered Javanese eagle, hatched at the Javanese Eagle Sanctuary Centre, in Bogor district, about 60 km south of Indonesia’s capital Jakarta, Head of the Mount Halimun Salak National Park, Ahmad Munawir, said yesterday.

The second by second of the hatching of this rare little bird was recorded by a monitoring camera and broadcast live by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry’s YouTube channel.

Munawir said that, the Javanese eagle egg, from the parents of female Dygtha and male Rama, has been in the nest since Jan 20.

“After being incubated for about 50 days, finally the egg hatched on Friday, Mar 11, 2022, at 1:35 a.m. local time,” Munawir said.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature, classifies the Javanese eagle on the red list of endangered species.

This forest’s predator, which plays an important role in maintaining the balance of the ecosystem, only breeds once every two years, with only one egg each time.

Source: NAM News Network

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