Day: May 12, 2022

The Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) conducted a routine inspection to check the readiness of early warning instruments for earthquakes and tsunamis in Yogyakarta and Central Java on Thursday.

The checks were conducted at five equipment shelter points—Abang Temple Seismograph Shelter in Sleman district, UGM Wanagama Shelter, Gedangsari Seismograph Shelter, SBJM Sanden Bantul, and MKJM Shelter in Klaten, Central Java.

“These reviews and checking are routinely being carried out as part of preventive measures to maintain earthquake information systems and tsunami early warnings,” BMKG head Dwikorita Karnawati said in a written statement received here on Thursday.

The southern coast of Java is prone to earthquakes and tsunamis due to the movement of the Indo-Australian and Eurasian tectonic plates, she explained.

Therefore, checks on all early warning tools and instruments must be performed since this pertains to the safety of the people, she added.

“This is part of the BMKG’s effort and commitment to realizing zero victims. We strive to provide information that is not only fast but also precise and accurate,” she remarked.

Karnawati further said that the BMKG has also implemented a work culture that is alert, anticipatory, responsive, and adaptive, considering that natural disasters are unpredictable and can happen at any time.

“We continue to race against time to minimize the risks and losses that may occur in the future,” she added.

In addition to routinely checking all early warning instruments, BMKG is also actively educating the public about disasters, she said.

She expressed the hope that all Indonesian people will always be prepared to face disasters and their impacts. The community must consciously adapt to and anticipate sudden disasters.

Source: Antara News

The investigation of suspected cases of mysterious hepatitis continued to show good development in terms of the information received, Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin stated.

“We continue to monitor its progress, and there is a lot of additional information. In general, the progress is quite good,” Sadikin noted through a virtual press conference in Jakarta on Thursday.

The minister remarked that the investigation process was conducted in collaboration with the Indonesian Health Ministry, World Health Organization (WHO), the United States, and the United Kingdom in an effort to find the cause of acute hepatitis.

Sadikin remarked that the Adenovirus strain 41 might be the cause of acute hepatitis. However, this had yet to be proven by further research.

The Ministry of Health is still conducting an investigation through a complete virus panel examination and an epidemiological investigation to uncover further details about the cause of this disease.

“Hepatitis is indeed a big issue, and not all of the information reaches the public. We will convey it on another occasion,” he remarked.

Spokesperson for the Ministry of Health, Siti Nadia Tarmizi, stated that during the investigation process, the public should increase vigilance by always implementing health protocols.

“During the investigation period, we urge the public to be careful and remain calm. Please take precautionary steps, such as washing hands, ensuring food is cooked and clean, not changing eating utensils, avoiding contact with sick people, and continuing to implement health protocols,” Tarmizi emphasized.

The spokesperson also noted that acute hepatitis was not likely to become a pandemic since the increase in the number of cases was quite slow. So far, only six countries had reported more than six patients.

On a separate occasion, consultant pediatrician of Gastro Hepatology from the University of Indonesia, Hanifah Oswari, stated that the initial suspected causes of acute hepatitis were Adenovirus, SARS CoV-2, and ABV virus. The virus attacked the patient’s gastrointestinal tract and respiratory tract.

To prevent the risk of infection, Oswari suggested parents to increase their vigilance by taking preventive measures, including maintaining personal and environmental hygiene.

“Maintain cleanliness by washing hands with soap, ensuring consumption of food that is cooked or the beverage consumed is clean, not sharing eating utensils with other people, and avoiding contact of our children with sick people,” he reminded.

Source: Antara News

Indonesia has begun to transition from the pandemic to the endemic phase, Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture Muhadjir Effendy has said.

“In essence, (we have to) look at the active cases, positivity rate, hospital occupancy rate, and mortality rate (to determine the transition to the endemic phase),” he said in a written statement received in Jakarta on Thursday.

In fact, there has been no indication of COVID-19 being the leading cause of death among existing diseases, he said.

Based on an internal survey of 18 Jakarta hospitals by the Coordinating Ministry for Human Development and Culture in February this year, COVID-19 is currently ranked 14th in terms of the mortality rate in the country.

“The biggest (cause of) deaths is cancer, followed by pneumonia, and non-specific pneumonia, while COVID-19 is ranked 14th. So, it does not pose a threat any longer,” he informed.

However, he appealed to the public to remain alert and exercise caution since there are still cases of COVID-19 transmission and deaths.

“But looking at several indicators, we have de facto transitioned to the endemic phase,” he said.

A clearer picture of the transition from the pandemic to the endemic phase will emerge after the Eid al-Fitr holidays. If the number of cases does not increase significantly, then COVID-19 in Indonesia will soon become endemic, he said.

“If the number of cases does not increase two or three weeks after Eid al-Fitr, we are upbeat about transitioning into the endemic phase soon,” he added.

Source: Antara News

Indonesian Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin confirmed that children’s vaccination data will be integrated into the COVID-19 mobile contact tracing application PeduliLindungi to ease accessing immunisation data for various parties, including parents and the authorities.

“Usually, immunisation data will be recorded in the mother and child’s health card, and sometimes (parents) will lose or forget the card,” Sadikin noted during a virtual press conference broadcast by the Kemenkes RI YouTube channel observed here on Thursday.

He highlighted that some institutions, including universities, will require applicants to submit immunisation data to proceed with the registration process.

“Foreign universities require applicants to submit details of the vaccination history to ensure they have received polio, diphtheria/tetanus, and other required vaccines. (Due to this requirement), residents looking to continue their education abroad will encounter difficulties if they lose their vaccination record card,” the minister explained.

Sadikin said that currently, the ministry’s immunisation data was still being gathered from thousands of health facilities that administered the vaccination.

“If a resident relocates to another school or city, then they will experience some difficulties except if they hold their vaccination record. Usually, the record will not last until the holder’s adulthood,” he stated.

The ministry decided to expand the existing system of recording the COVID-19 vaccine history to all forms of immunisations, so that the history of all vaccines that a resident has received throughout their life would be available on PeduliLindungi, Sadikin remarked.

“We will emulate the success of the COVID-19 vaccine history recording (in PeduliLindungi) by registering and compiling the individual vaccination data in the digital media,” he stated.

The minister remarked that making vaccination records and certificates available by digital means would bolster the transformation of primary healthcare services sought by the ministry.

Through the utilisation of digital technology, all data of immunisation recipients will be logged and could be accessed anywhere and at any time through the PeduliLindungi application, Sadikin added.

Source: Antara News

Speaker of the House of Representatives (DPR), Puan Maharani, has expressed the hope that the COVID-19 pandemic will bring attention to the importance of investment in nursing.

Nurses have played a crucial role in treating COVID-19 patients in the past two years of the pandemic, Maharani noted.

“The entrance of COVID-19 in Indonesia was inevitable. However, thanks to nurses and doctors, many COVID-19 patients with moderate and severe symptoms could be recovered,” she said in a written statement released here on International Nurses Day, which fell on Thursday.

For that reason, the role of nurses must be appreciated, especially during the pandemic, because they directly interact with patients, she added.

According to Maharani, despite the nurses working hard to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, Indonesia was still overwhelmed during the two peaks of COVID-19 transmission in the country.

At that time, many nurses had to work overtime, even to the point of contracting COVID-19 and some of them succumbed to the virus.

“In the future, such things should not happen again. Therefore, it is important for the government to invest in nursing,” the House Speaker said.

Through investment in nursing, the government can ensure that the availability of nurses is sufficient if an infectious disease outbreak occurs again, she added.

Maharani also emphasized that nurses must be provided adequate support both in terms of education, welfare, and medical equipment.

“The government should pay more attention to the welfare of nurses,” she added.

She said that Law Number 38 of 2014 concerning nursing has provided legal certainty for the nursing profession.

The government’s task is now to ensure that the provisions of the law are implemented for the advancement of nurses in the country, she added.

Source: Antara News

The Ministry of Health has reactivated around 300 thousand integrated health services posts (posyandu) in all regions to support the 2022 National Children Immunization Month program that will start in May.

“It is hard for the government to provide health services to 80 thousand villages, 514 districts and cities in 34 provinces if we only rely on community health centers (puskesmas), whose number reaches only around 10 thousand,” Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin stated during a virtual press conference accessed from the Health Ministry’s YouTube channel here on Thursday.

The existing puskesmas in the country will not be able to reach people living in remote areas, he pointed out.

Hence, the Ministry of Health should expand health service coverage by utilizing additional units of health facilities to reach those people.

“We have observed that the health facilities, which number around 300 thousand units, are posyandu that have been created for a long time, run well, and are known to the public in all corners of Indonesia,” he remarked.

To this end, the Ministry of Health, along with the Ministry of Home Affairs and regional governments, have reactivated posyandu for providing standard health services to the community.

The minister remarked that there would be 10 to 20 primary health services that posyandu can offer to the community. “We will ensure that all supporting facilities and infrastructure are immediately completed. One of them is immunization,” he stated.

He noted that the policy aligns with the primary health service transformation program in Indonesia.

“The national immunization program will be a success if supported by posyandu cadres,” the minister stressed.

On the same occasion, Director General of Disease Prevention and Control at the Ministry of Health Maxi Rein Rondonuwu noted that the COVID-19 pandemic had caused the coverage of the national immunization program to run slowly over fear of COVID-19 transmission among health workers and the community.

“During the pandemic, the coverage was lagging behind,” he remarked.

Source: Antara News