Day: June 8, 2022

East Java Governor Khofifah Indar Parawansa wants every hospital to immediately apply digital-based services that can be easily accessed by the public.

“All policy processes in the regions should be connected to the National system. Everything must be digital,” she stated when opening the 16th Hospital Seminar of the Indonesian Hospital Association (Persi) for the East Java Region and Hospital Expo XVI in Grand City Surabaya on Wednesday.

Parawansa suggested that the program be in line with the six pillars of transformation in the health sector initiated by the Health Ministry.

One of them is the transformation of primary services by digitizing medical records. She said that patients’ health records will be easier to be accessed for treatment with digitization.

“When I visit hospitals, I usually ask for the hospital to have digital health records,” she said.

The next pillar is the transformation of referral services and health resilience systems, including human resources in the health environment.

This program can be achieved by promoting health education through digital platforms and strengthening medical movement campaigns and regenerations.

“Persi as front liners must have more detailed assistance. Because connectivity is very important to realize the transformation in the health sector,” the Governor noted.

Then, the pillars followed by the transformation in the health financing system and health technology that related to the previous pillars.

“This digitalized medical record will eventually have an impact on reimbursement records to BPJS and so on. Related parties must increase coordination in payment,” she added.

On the other hand, Parawansa took the time to visit the medical equipment exhibition, which was attended by 76 national companies.

She said that the domestic products exhibition was an important part when measuring President Joko Widodo’s direction regarding health technology.

“The most important thing is that there is a commitment to strengthen local content of all medical devices,” she noted.

Source: Antara News

The Ministry of Agriculture will import 3 million vaccine doses for foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), which are expected to arrive in the second week of June 2022, according to a ministry official.

“For the emergency vaccines of 3 million doses sourced from the Directorate General of Livestock and Animal Health’s state budget (allocation), the vaccines come from France and are estimated to arrive in the second week of June 2022,” Director General of Livestock and Animal Health at the Ministry of Agriculture Nasrullah said during a meeting with Commission IV of the House of Representatives (DPR) at the Parliamentary Complex here on Wednesday.

Aside from the procurement of FMD vaccine doses from France, Indonesia will also receive a vaccine supply from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which is expected to arrive on June 12.

Then, the country will also receive vaccines, in cooperation with Australia, for some 500 thousand to 1 million vaccine doses on July 1, imports of vaccines from Brazil of 100 thousand doses and from New Zealand, with 100 thousand doses.

Nasrullah explained that those vaccines are emergency vaccines, and the ministry’s Veterinary Pharmacy Center is currently preparing for the development of the locally-made FMD vaccine, which is estimated to begin in August or September.

The Ministry of Agriculture predicted that 17 million livestock would receive the vaccine, or around 80 percent of the livestock population of provinces affected by the disease. The livestock will be inoculated three times: two injections in 2022 and one injection in 2023.

“Thus, the vaccine needed in 2022 is around 27.2 million doses,” he said.

According to the Agriculture Ministry’s data, as of June 6, 2022, as many as 81,800 heads of livestock have been infected with FMD, spread in 163 districts and cities in 18 provinces.

Of the total, 28,528 heads have recovered, 607 cattle were slaughtered, and 524 cattle were reported to be dead. Meanwhile, the number of livestock that has not recovered yet stood at 52,211 heads.

Source: Antara News

The third stage sero survey to determine the number of people in Indonesia who already have antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 virus, the cause of COVID-19, will be held from June to July 2022, the Health Minister stated.

“We will conduct the third sero survey at the end of June 2022 so that the result on our people’s antibody condition will be out by the third week of July 2022,” Budi Gunadi Sadikin noted.

During the Health Transformation virtual agenda on Wednesday, he explained that the sero survey will become a scientific evidence-based input for President Joko Widodo to make a decision concerning the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Hopefully, in August 2022, the president can make a decision related to Indonesia’s independence,” he said.

The sero survey is held in collaboration with University of Indonesia’s Faculty of Medicine (FKUI).

On a separate occasion, FKUI Epidemiologist Pandu Riono noted that the third sero survey is being carried out by choosing population that already has antibodies due to the government’s vaccination program or COVID-19 infections.

“We will do it across Indonesia. We will take blood samples to be analyzed,” he noted.

The second largest survey in the world after India is done by gathering information and data from respondents that encompasses COVID-19 prevalence estimations with population rates according to age, sex, and residence characteristics.

This will determine the proportion of symptomatic and asymptomatic COVID-19 cases, as well as discover factors related to COVID-19 infections in Indonesia.

The result of the first sero survey in November-December 2021 showed that 86.6 percent of the Indonesian population already has antibodies against SARS-CoV-2.

In the second stage, in April 2022, the figure increased to 99.2 percent.

Riono believes that Indonesians’ high antibody rate can reduce the risk of negative impacts that come from COVID-19 infections.

Source: Antara News