Month: June 2022

At least 201.47 million Indonesian citizens have received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine as of Thursday, according to the COVID-19 Handling Task Force.

Data received by ANTARA from the task force here on Thursday showed that the number of citizens who received the first vaccine dose rose by 18,684 on Thursday, taking the total number of recipients to 201,472,856.

Then, the number of fully vaccinated people, or those who have received two vaccine shots under the nationwide vaccination program, swelled by 16,030 to reach 168,980,896 on Thursday.

The task force’s data also showed that the number of Indonesians who have received the third or booster vaccine dose rose by 51,482 to touch 50,450,341 as of Thursday.

As part of efforts to boost community immunity against COVID-19, the Indonesian government launched a nationwide vaccination program on January 13, 2021, targeting as many as 208,265,720 citizens across the country.

Earlier, the Indonesian Pediatric Association (IDAI) said that it is still studying indicators regarding the provision of COVID-19 vaccines to children aged below six years.

Member of IDAI’s tropical infections coordination unit, Nina Dwi Putri, at a webinar on Tuesday, affirmed that the study would continue to be carried out even though several countries have begun to provide various types of COVID-19 vaccines for children under the age of six along with studies on the provision of booster doses for adolescents.

The study is looking into the vaccine’s effectiveness, benefits, and side effects that children may experience.

According to Putri, a more in-depth study will have to be carried out because, based on IDAI data, the full dose vaccination coverage among children aged six years and above has not yet reached the target.

She informed that once the vaccination target, especially for the full dose, for children aged six years and above, is reached, IDAI will immediately decide on the provision of booster doses for children.

 

Source: Antara News

The COVID-19 Handling Task Force reported 2,248 fresh cases of COVID-19 in Indonesia on Thursday, thereby bringing the total case count, so far, to 6,088,460.

Based on data from the COVID-19 Handling Task Force received in Jakarta, Thursday, Jakarta ranked first, with an additional 1,255 COVID-19 cases followed by 449 in West Java, 238 in Banten, 113 in East Java, 73 in Bali, and 32 in Central Java.

Meanwhile, an additional 1,626 people recovered from COVID-19 in Indonesia, thereby bringing the total count to 5,914,933.

Jakarta contributed with 1,090 recovered cases followed by 222 in West Java, 115 in East Java, 72 in Banten, and 35 each in Bali and Yogyakarta.

Meanwhile, nationally, six deaths due to COVID-19 were reported in Indonesia, thereby bringing the total to 156,737 to date.

The six cases of death due to COVID-19 were reported from Jakarta, Bali, and South Sumatra, with two cases each.

Thus, the number of active cases in Indonesia increased by 616, thereby bringing the total count to 16,790 to date.

The Task Force also reported that 5,211 people were suspected of having contracted COVID-19, and 79,384 specimens had been examined as of today.

The Task Force reminded the public to continue to implement health protocols, such as by wearing masks, washing hands with soap and running water, maintaining distance, and avoiding crowds.

Earlier, Health Minister, Budi Gunadi Sadikin, estimated that the rate of COVID-19 cases in Jakarta Province would peak in the near future.

“Jakarta is the most affected by Omicron. In my opinion, Jakarta will soon reach its peak,” Sadikin stated while delivering a press statement at his office in Jakarta, June 29.

Reflecting on the Delta wave that occurred in Indonesia in July 2021, Sadikin noted that the peak of COVID-19 cases would occur when the virus variant had dominated more than 80 percent of the total population.

 

Source: Antara News

The Ministry of Religious Affairs is providing specialist consultation services for Hajj pilgrims with high health risks to ensure they are ready to participate in worship activities during the peak of the Hajj pilgrimage.

“This service is a new innovation that has become one of the government’s programs to educate (the pilgrims) and ensure the pilgrims can carry out all worship activities in good health,” head of the Center for Religious Harmony at the Ministry of Religious Affairs, Wawan Djunaedi, said at a press conference on the Hajj pilgrimage implementation here on Thursday.

The consultation service is scheduled to be provided regularly once or twice a week, he informed. The service is being provided by health workers of each pilgrim group and followed up with consultations with specialist doctors enlisted by the government.

According to Djunaedi, the service is being provided to make it easier to take action when high-risk pilgrims require medical attention. Officers are continuing to monitor high-risk pilgrims with the help of special bangles, which the pilgrims are required to wear at all times until they return to the country.

“There is no need to remove it (the bangle) when performing ablution, bathing, or praying,” he said.

The government has also added more officers around the Great Mosque of Mecca to serve and assist Hajj pilgrims round the clock.

The pilgrims have been asked to continue maintaining good health so that they can participate in the peak of the pilgrimage smoothly.

This year, Saudi Arabia has allowed one million pilgrims from various countries to perform the Hajj pilgrimage. Indonesia has been allotted a quota of 100,051 for the pilgrimage.

Saudi Arabia has laid down two conditions for foreign Hajj pilgrims. First, the pilgrims must not be older than 65 years and must have received the full dose of any COVID-19 vaccine approved by the Saudi Health Ministry.

Second, pilgrims traveling from abroad must have a certificate showing a negative PCR result, with the test taken no more than 72 hours prior to departure. (

 

Source: Antara News

An expert from the Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Indonesia (FKUI)-Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital (RSCM) has listed some symptoms that can help distinguish between dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF), typhoid, and malaria.

“It’s quite difficult (to tell the difference) because the symptom is the same: it’s fever,” Dr. Adityo Susilo, Sp.PD-KPTI, FINASIM, from the tropical infection division of the Faculty of Medicine said at a health webinar on Thursday.

DHF is a viral infection that is transmitted through the bite of Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes, he stated. The characteristic of the dengue mosquito is that it has white spots on its body, he added.

One of the striking symptoms of DHF is a high fever that appears suddenly and is accompanied by severe headache, heavy eyes, muscle ache, and weakness.

“This infection can also interfere with the digestive process in the stomach. Therefore, the patient also often feels nauseous, has pain in the pit of the stomach, so that the ability to eat and drink is greatly reduced,” Susilo informed.

These symptoms, he said, appear during the initial phase, when the virus is very active, and generally last for three days.

“Uniquely, after the fever goes down, the patient actually enters the critical phase. This is because antibodies begin to form and are more destructive. The resistance process becomes more intense and the risk of shock and bleeding increases. It will last three days, but some cases can extend,” he added.

“Once at the end of the critical phase, the fever may reappear but (it is) not as high as the fever at the beginning of the phase. After that, the patient has just entered the healing phase. Of course, his condition will get better, the platelet count will increase, and the condition will recover,” he said.

Meanwhile, typhoid (commonly called typhus) is caused by the bacterium Salmonella typhi, which is usually found in contaminated water or food, Susilo said. The symptoms of typhoid fever do not appear suddenly like dengue fever, but gradually, he added.

“The fever follows the pattern of stairs; day by day, the fever gets higher,” he said.

The symptoms of typhoid fever follow the reverse pattern, he highlighted. This means that the fever is higher at night than in the morning or during the day.

Susilo then said that typhoid also has symptoms related to digestion. Therefore, a patient will complain of constipation or difficulty defecating. However, some patients may experience diarrhea.

Meanwhile, malaria is caused by the Plasmodium parasite, which is transmitted through the bite of the female Anopheles mosquito.

“Malaria has more characteristic symptoms. The malaria triad is a specific symptom for this disease,” Susilo said.

The malaria triad comprises the cold stage, a phase in which the patient shivers violently, the hot stage or the high fever phase, and the sweating phase when the fever begins to reduce gradually, but the patient sweats a lot, he explained.

“In contrast to dengue fever, fever caused by malaria goes down by itself, even if it is not treated,” he added.

 

Source: Antara News