VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Government spokesperson and Ambassador for the Adaptation of New Habits, Reisa Broto Asmoro, during a virtual press conference on September 22, 2021. (ANTARA/Zubi Mahrofi/rst) - 

Indonesia is listed among the top 10 countries for having the highest COVID-19 vaccination rates in the world, according to government's spokesperson and Ambassador for the Adaptation of New Habits Reisa Broto Asmoro.

Indonesia had achieved the target of administering the first dose to 40 percent of the population and second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine to 22.73-percent of the populace out of the targeted 208,265,720 vaccinations in Indonesia, Asmoro noted in an online press statement at the Presidential Office on Friday.

"Praise be to God, Indonesia has exceeded the 10-percent target and has also reached the benchmark, or 40-percent target of injecting the first dose this week," she added.

Asmoro believes that the achievement is a result of the government's continued efforts to provide and distribute vaccine stocks. 

The World Health Organization (WHO) has set a vaccination target of 10 percent of the population in each country by September 2021, 40 percent of the population in each country by the end of 2021, and 70 percent of the world's population by m.id-2022.

Asmoro revealed that overall, 43.9 percent of the world's population had received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. A total of 6.03 billion doses have been administered globally, and 28.15 million vaccines were given to the world's population each day.

She explained that as of September 24, 2021, Indonesia had received more than 273.6 million vaccine doses via direct purchases, global cooperation through the Covax facility, and grants from friendly countries.

"From January to September 2021, the government has distributed more than 179.8 million doses throughout Indonesia," Asmoro remarked.

She emphasized that efforts to control COVID-19, especially vaccinations, are not only about numbers but also the hard work of several parties.

"Until Friday 10 a.m. local time, we had received more than two hundred million doses through hard work and mutual cooperation of several stakeholders involved," she stated.

Asmoro also invited the public to immediately get the vaccine without being choosy about the brand as a way to commend the hard work of all parties involved in the efforts to end the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The best vaccine is the one that is currently available. There is no need to wait to be selective," she added//ANT

A worker holds palm oil fruits while posing for a picture at an oil palm plantation in Slim River, Malaysia August 12, 2021. Picture taken August 12, 2021. REUTERS/Lim Huey Teng/Files - 

Malaysian crude palm oil prices, which have hovered near last month's record highs, will stay firm until February, and may start easing from March on rising output in the top two producer nations rise, leading industry analyst Dorab Mistry said.

Mistry, the director of Indian consumer goods company Godrej International, unveiled on Saturday a bullish outlook for the next five months, due to Indonesia's high export levy and a peak in supply tightness anticipated at the start of 2022.

He pegged palm oil prices in a range from 4,000 ringgit to 4,400 ringgit during October to February before they ease in March//CNA

Commuters wearing masks to avoid contracting the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) walk on a zebra crossing in Seoul, South Korea, September 24, 2021. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji - 

South Korea's daily COVID-19 infections topped 3,000 for the first time as an outbreak fuelled by this week's three-day holiday spreads, authorities said on Saturday (Sep 25).

Friday's 3,273 coronavirus cases surpassed the previous high a day earlier, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said, taking the nation's tally to 298,402 infections and 2,441 deaths.

Domestically transmitted cases accounted for 3,245 of the new infections, while 28 were imported.

More than 77 per cent of the former were in Seoul and areas neighbouring the capital, which is home to about half the population of 52 million.

"We estimate that the surge in travel during the Thanksgiving holiday, as well as the increase in person-to-person contact, could be major reasons for the sharp increase," said the agency's director, Jeong Eun-kyeong.

The current outbreak of the highly infectious Delta variant has contributed to the jump in infections, she told a briefing.

Daily infections may continue to surge over the next one or two weeks, she added, urging people to delay or cancel private gatherings over the period.

The mortality rate and the number of severe cases remain relatively low and steady at 0.82 per cent and 339, respectively, helped by vaccinations that focused on older people at high risk of severe infection, the KDCA said.

The number of coronavirus tests jumped more than 50 per cent to 227,874 from a week earlier, it added.

Authorities have urged those returning from the holiday to get tested even for the mildest symptoms similar to COVID-19, especially before going back to work.

By Friday, 73.5 per cent of the population had received at least one dose of vaccine, with nearly 45 per cent fully inoculated//CNA

FILE PHOTO: Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison is seated with members of his delegation as he participates in a 'Quad nations' meeting at the Leaders' Summit of the Quadrilateral Framework hosted by U.S. President Joe Biden in the East Room at the White House in Washington, U.S., September 24, 2021. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/File Photo - 

The United States, Japan, India and Australia will work to improve the security of supply chains for critical technologies such as clean energy and to ease a global semiconductor shortage, said Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

The Quad nations, in their first in-person summit on Friday in Washington, agreed on a partnership to secure critical infrastructure, the White House said. 

Morrison told reporters after the meeting this will include connecting Australia's raw minerals with manufacturing and processing capabilities, and with end users in the United States, India and Japan, according to a transcript released on Saturday by his government.

Australia is the world's biggest supplier of rare earths outside of China, and is a major supplier of minerals used in electric vehicle batteries, such as nickel, copper and cobalt.

While the leaders did not publicly refer to China, they repeatedly insisted on rules-based behaviour in a region where China has been trying to flex its muscles. Beijing criticised the group as "doomed to fail."

The other Quad leaders expressed appreciation for Australia's role in supplying critical materials "because that is a necessary supply for the many industries and processing works that they operate themselves", Morrison said.

"On critical minerals, Australia is one of the biggest producers, but we believe we can play a bigger role in a critical supply chain that is supporting the technologies of the future."

Australia will host a clean-energy supply chain summit next year, aiming to develop a roadmap for building such supply chains in the Indo-Pacific region, Morrison said.

The Quad also discussed ways to better secure a semiconductor supply, Morrison said, as global carmakers and other manufacturers have cut production due to the shortage made worse by a COVID-19 resurgence in key Asian semiconductor production hubs.

"This is an ecosystem we want to create and we want to do that... in the region," he said//CNA