VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

COVID-19 vaccinations are currently being prioritized for travelers in view of the declining stocks of available vaccines, Acting Director for Immunization Management at the Ministry of Health Prima Yosephine informed here on Wednesday.

“Thus, we are prioritizing this first while waiting for the shipment that will come and procurement from inside the country. We expect that, by November, everything will return (to normal),” she said.

She then urged people who are keen to travel to take the COVID-19 booster at the Harbor Health Office (KKP) before the departure date.

She asked them to contact the KKP as it stipulates the conditions for immunization. For example, to undertake umroh, people need to take the meningitis vaccination, which is being provided at the KKP, she explained.

According to Yosephine, currently, the available COVID-19 vaccine stock is pegged at around one million doses and it has already been distributed to the regions.

Vaccine stocks are also available at several public health centers (puskesmas), so people can get vaccinated at puskesmas that still have vaccines in stock.

"Not all puskesmas (stock) is empty, but it is not like in the past, in which (the stock) is abundance. Moreover, there are several puskesmas that do not have a stock," she informed.

In addition to prioritizing the booster vaccine for travelers, the government is also striving to conduct mapping to relocate vaccine stocks from provinces that have more vaccines to provinces that lack stocks.

On Wednesday, the COVID-19 task force reported that the number of Indonesians who have received the third dose or booster has reached 64,636,490.

The number of people who have received the third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine increased by 44,428 on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the number of citizens who have received the first and second doses stood at 205,055,891 and 171,728,936, respectively. (Antaranews)

The Education, Culture, Research, and Technology Ministry opened the seventh batch of Teachers as Mobilizers Education (PGP) Program to improve competence that later results in optimized outcomes of students’ learning.

“I hope that teachers would be able to take advantage of this opportunity, learn a lot, and establish as many friendships (and connections) as possible from all over Indonesia. Along the way, teachers will face various challenges and that is where the resilience (of teachers) as drivers of transformation and leaders of change will be tested,” Education, Culture, Research, and Technology Minister Nadiem Makarim noted in the opening ceremony here on Thursday.

The PGP program differs from the programs, as it is more comprehensive and helps teachers develop themselves, ranging from their technical abilities to the mindset as educators of the next generation.

Meanwhile, the Ministry’s Director of Principals, School Supervisors, and Education Personnel, Praptono, said that the program’s seventh batch is being attended by 18,079 prospective mobilizer teachers (CGP), comprising 17,885 regular CGP from 285 districts and cities in 32 provinces and 194 “CGP Cognitions.”

"This is the result of the selection of 220 thousand candidates, so on this occasion, let me congratulate the teachers, who have been determined qualified as participants in the Mobilizing Teachers Education program,” he stated.

After completing the educational program, he said the participants were expected to be ready to become leaders, supervisors, and structural officials in the field of education.

The seventh batch of the PGP program, held from October 20 to December 21, 2022, will be implemented in the 11 provinces of West Java, Yogyakarta, North Sumatra, Aceh, Bali, West Kalimantan, South Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan, East Nusa Tenggara, West Sumatra, and South Sumatra.

The program will be continued on March 4 and will end at July 21, 2023. (Antaranews)

 China's foreign ministry, responding to a question about clashes between Hong Kong protesters and the staff of its consulate in the British city of Manchester on Sunday, said on Wednesday that it had lodged representations with Britain over the incident.

During a regular media briefing, ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said the representations were made over what he described as malicious harassment by lawless elements. (Reuters)

The World Health Organization said on Wednesday it will temporarily suspend the standard two-dose vaccination regimen for cholera, replacing it with a single dose due to vaccine shortages and rising outbreaks worldwide.

The U.N. agency said "the exceptional decision reflects the grave state of the cholera vaccine stockpile" at a time when countries like Haiti, Syria, Malawi are fighting large outbreaks of the deadly disease, which spreads through contact with contaminated water and food.

As of Oct. 9, Haiti had confirmed 32 cases and 18 deaths from the disease, while many cases were still awaiting confirmation.

"The pivot in strategy will allow for the doses to be used in more countries, at a time of unprecedented rise in cholera outbreaks worldwide," WHO said in a statement on Wednesday.

The WHO's emergencies director Mike Ryan told reporters in a briefing that the change in strategy was a sign of the "scale of the crisis" caused by a lack of focus on safe sanitation and immunization for all at risk.

"It's a sad day for us to have to go backwards," he said.

The one-dose strategy had proved to be effective as a response to cholera outbreaks, the agency said, although the duration of protection is limited and appears to be much lower in children.

The disease often causes no or mild symptoms, but serious cases cause acute diarrhoea and can kill within hours if untreated.

Cholera cases have surged this year, especially in places of poverty and conflict, with outbreaks reported in 29 countries and fatality rates rising sharply. The WHO also said that climate change means that cholera is a risk in an increasing number of countries, as the bacteria causing the illness multiplies faster in warmer waters.

A cholera outbreak in Syria has already killed at least 33 people, posing a danger across the frontlines of the country's 11-year war and stirring fears in crowded camps for the displaced.

A cholera outbreak in a north Cameroon refugee camp has killed three people and infected at least 36, the UN refugee agency said on Wednesday.

The first case was confirmed on Saturday in the Minawao refugee camp, which hosts around 75,000 people who fled Boko Haram insurgents in neighbouring Nigeria. (reuters)