Day: August 18, 2022

The harmonization of health protocol standards for the convenience of international travelers during the pandemic has entered the network harmonization and data security system evaluation stage, spokesperson for the Indonesian G20 Presidency, Siti Nadia Tarmizi, informed.

“It is currently in the process of developing universal verification for digital health documents,” she said during the “Road to 3rd Health Working Group (HWG)” virtual press conference on Zoom on Thursday.

The HWG forum is part of the G20 Sherpa Track that is focused on the global health architecture. The forum is stressing the mobilization of financial resources to prevent, prepare, and respond to future pandemics.

Meanwhile, G20 is an international forum comprising 19 countries and the European Union that work together to handle major issues. Indonesia is holding the presidency of the grouping this year.

The meetings have been held to discuss health protocol standard harmonization, including ways to implement it.

The periodic HWG involves economic and development cooperation organizations and global digital health partners with the support of the World Health Organization (WHO).

The trial for the health protocol standard harmonization technology is being undertaken by Indonesia along with Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Global Digital Health Partnership virtually.

The group expects a Public Trust Directory to be prepared to manage travelers’ data and information exchange so that it can understand problems within the trial, she noted.

Technology feasibility and requirements necessary to harmonize networks can also be documented in a confidential manner, she added.

The trusted network is being prepared to integrate various traveling requirement platforms that exist in each country. The Public Trust Directory is expected to ensure data security for all service users.

The G20 collectively agreed to the harmonization of health protocol standards during the 1st HWG Meeting on March 28–29, 2022, in Yogyakarta.

During the meeting, G20 member countries agreed to develop cross-border interconnectivity as well as various efficient COVID-19 information mechanisms to ease international travel.

Source: Antara News

The 3rd Health Working Group (HWG) meeting in Bali on August 22–24, 2022, will strengthen Indonesia’s diplomatic efforts toward realizing equitable vaccine access and diagnostic equipment development.

“The 3rd HWG (meeting) will discuss the importance of geographical diversification of research and manufacturing centers for the development of vaccines, medicines, and diagnostic tools, especially for developing countries,” Indonesian spokesperson for the G20, Siti Nadia Tarmizi, said at a virtual press conference on “Road to 3rd HWG,” on Thursday.

The HWG meeting is a part of the G20 Sherpa Track, which is focusing on discussions on developing the global health architecture.

Tarmizi informed that the meeting will be divided into four sessions. The first session will discuss establishing networks between researchers and health manufacturing actors in G20 countries to anticipate public health emergencies and pandemics in the future.

Meanwhile, efforts to strengthen the networks as well as increase the involvement of the public and private sectors in supporting the networks will be discussed in the second and third sessions, respectively, she said.

The fourth session will discuss the initiatives taken by the G20 for bolstering the research and manufacturing ecosystem to ensure the equitable access and development of vaccines, drugs, and diagnostic tools.

Tarmizi, who is also the secretary of the Directorate General of Public Health at the Health Ministry, said that the meeting is part of a series of Indonesia’s diplomacy efforts in the health sector to strengthen the global health architecture.

The working group is focusing on three priority issues in 2022: building global health system resilience; harmonizing global health protocol standards; and expanding global manufacturing and knowledge centers for pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response, she added.

In addition, she outlined a number of follow-up actions on the results of previous HWG meetings, including the 1st HWG Meeting in Yogyakarta from March 28–29, which discussed the harmonization of global health protocols.

As a follow-up to the results of the meeting, the Universal Verifier Vaccine Certificate, which allows digital COVID-19 vaccination certificates of international travelers to be detected by other countries’ systems, is ready to be implemented, the spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, during the 2nd HWG in West Nusa Tenggara province on June 6–7, which discussed building global health resilience, the G20 nations agreed to strengthen cooperation on sharing reliable health and virus data through the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID), she informed.

She added that Indonesia also held the 1st Joint Finance and Health Ministerial Meeting in Yogyakarta on June 20–21 to realize the establishment of the Financial Intermediary Fund (FIF) to bolster global health resilience.

Source: Antara News

The World Health Organization (WHO) has not yet released any official statement on treating COVID-19 like ordinary influenza, Health Ministry Spokesperson Mohammad Syahril has said.

“The WHO has already declared (COVID-19 a) pandemic. To this day, there has not been any statement concerning pandemic revocation,” he noted during the “Road to 3rd Health Working Group (HWG)” virtual press conference on Zoom on Thursday.

He made the statement in response to news reports that Thailand is preparing to treat COVID-19 like ordinary influenza starting October 2022.

This is a matter of policy, which is up to each country, Syahril informed.

“This is based on the consideration of each country and in accordance with the condition of these countries,” he added.

Indonesia, on its part, is still being careful in implementing COVID-19 handling policies, including health protocol relaxations.

Further, periodic COVID-19 handling evaluation is being done through collective discussions with experts as well as ministries and institutions.

“Indonesia is being careful and being gradual,” he remarked.

An example of this carefulness is when the country allowed mask relaxation outdoors but revoked its decision within a month, mandating masks for both outdoor and indoor activities, he highlighted.

According to Syahril, the self-isolation policy for COVID patients with mild symptoms has continued to help stem the transmission rate.

“Self-isolation reduces transmission. Developed countries are also still carrying out self-isolation, like the United States. If you are positive, then you are not allowed to leave the isolation room for five to seven days,” he noted.

During the event, an epidemiologist from the University of Indonesia, Pandu Riono, said that Indonesia does not need to mimic other countries’ policies in responding to the pandemic.

Source: Antara News

The G20’s 3rd Health Working Group (HWG) meeting will discuss the issue of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), the Indonesian G20 Presidency’s health spokesperson, Siti Nadia Tarmizi, has informed.

“At the 3rd HWG, an additional agenda to discuss AMR, such as various efforts related to the prevention and control of antimicrobial resistance, will be carried out,” she revealed at a press conference on “Road to 3rd Health Working Group,” on Thursday.

The HWG is a part of the G20’s Sherpa Track, which is focused on global health architecture. The 3rd HWG meeting will be held on August 22–24, 2022, in Bali, and the main issue it will discuss is efforts to increase vaccine production and research networks and manufacturers.

On a separate occasion, YARSI University’s post-graduate director, Prof. Tjandra Yoga Aditama, said that antimicrobial resistance is currently a major global problem, and has even been referred to as a “silent epidemic.”

“If there is no adequate effort, the world may enter an era where antimicrobials, including antibiotics, antifungals, antivirals, antiparasitics, and others, will no longer be able to treat infections,” Aditama cautioned.

If this is not prevented, he said, it will have a huge impact on human health, as infectious diseases will be uncontrolled.

The 3rd HWG meeting will be divided into four sessions. Other than discussing building a network of researchers and manufacturers for public health emergencies, conversations on efforts to face future pandemics will also take place at the meeting.

The third and last sessions will discuss the government and the private sector’s participation in supporting the network, and G20 initiatives in strengthening the research and manufacturing ecosystem to ensure equitable access to vaccines, medicines, and diagnostic tools.

The meeting will be attended by delegates from 19 G20 member states and non-G20 guests. In addition, five regional representative countries, such as Fiji, Congo, Cambodia, Rwanda, and Belize, as well as 14 related international organizations have been invited to the meeting.

Source: Antara News

Jakarta recorded the highest daily addition of confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 2,060 people contracting the infection as of 12 p.m. local time on Thursday, the COVID-19 task force reported.

Jakarta was followed by West Java, which recorded 676 cases, Banten (472 cases), East Java (269 cases), and Central Java (145 cases), data from the COVID-19 task force received here on Thursday showed.

The new cases took the number of daily national COVID-19 cases to 4,039, bringing the total tally since March 2020 to 6,301,523.

Jakarta also recorded the most daily recoveries at 2,418, followed by West Java (982), East Java (441), Banten (324), and Bali (234).

On the national scale, the daily recovery rate increased by 5,250, bringing the total count to 6,092,306. Meanwhile, 21 deaths were reported on Thursday—6 in East Java province; 5 in Central Java; 2 deaths each in Jakarta, Banten, and Bali; and 1 death each in Riau, South Kalimantan, East Kalimantan, and Aceh.

The COVID-19 task force said that the number of active cases—including COVID-19 patients undergoing treatment and self-isolation as of Thursday—stood at 51,900, a decline of 1,232 compared to the previous day (August 17).

In addition, the number of suspected cases was recorded at 4,680.

These results were obtained based on the testing of 81,697 specimens from 35,325 people that were examined at hundreds of laboratories across Indonesia on Thursday.

The positivity rate for daily specimens was 9.59 percent, and the daily positivity rate for people was 11.43 percent.

Coordinator of the expert team of the COVID-19 task force, Prof. Wiku Adisasmito, said that the current COVID-19 situation in Indonesia is considerably better compared to last year.

“Indonesia keeps on showing improvement in terms of the number of cases and handling of COVID-19 to date,” he noted.

This can be gauged from data comparing the COVID-19 situation on August 17, 2021, and August 17, 2022, which shows a 53-percent decline in daily positive cases this year, Adisasmito said.

This year, there were around 5 thousand daily cases, far lower than the 11 thousand cases per day recorded in 2021.

Source: Antara News