VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Mar. 10 - In a handful of South Korean hospitals, designated nurses are using specially designed syringes to squeeze extra doses of coronavirus vaccine out of each vial in a bid to stretch the still limited number of vials to cover more people.

The practice has raised debate over medical safety and commercial concerns from the manufacturers who charge by the dose.

But at Seoul’s National Medical Center, healthcare workers say it’s actually a safe and easy process that should be a no-brainer for countries struggling to provide enough vaccines quickly.

“Two designated nurses take shifts to extract the doses and each of us had no trouble getting seven doses from each vial, vaccinating everyone,” said Kim Eun-suk, an intravenous therapy specialist who was taking a shift extracting doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine from vials that officially only hold six.

On Tuesday, Kim said the centre vaccinated 629 people with 90 vials of Pfizer vaccine co-developed by its German partner BioNTech, compared with the 540 people possible had they only extracted six doses from each vial.

It takes about five minutes to extract the doses using “low dead space” syringes designed to minimise the residual volume, she said.

“Extraction itself is not difficult. It requires squeezing the exact amount with the syringe. The most important is sterilization and I think any nurse would be able to pull through.”

At the suggestion of frontline nurses, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said it was up to providers whether to use of remaining doses, but did not make it a new standard or mandatory because it said it could burden the healthcare workers on site.

National Medical Center president Chung Ki-hyun said that the contracts with manufacturers - who sell by the dose - should not be a roadblock for on-site healthcare workers to use the remaining doses when they can save lives.

“With care and precision, the extra dose isn’t as hard to extract,” he said.

It’s not clear how many South Korean clinics are using the extra doses, but Chung said following the official limit means throwing away potentially life-saving vaccines.

Experts were divided about the decision to extract extra doses, as pooling leftover vaccine from multiple vials can lead to contamination. With the specialised low dead space syringes, however, a full extra dose can typically be pulled from a single Pfizer vaccine vial, and as many as two extra doses from AstraZeneca’s vaccine vials.

Urging caution over imprecise extraction, the Korean Medical Association (KMA) has advised its members to discard the remaining doses in the vials, according to a statement seen by Reuters.

KDCA said 446,941 people were given first doses of AstraZeneca and Pfizer shots by Tuesday midnight. South Korea has reported 470 new cases on Tuesday, adding to the total coronavirus cases of 93,733, with 1,648 deaths. (Reuters)

Mar. 10 - The U.S. dollar regained footing on Wednesday, clawing back some of its losses sustained overnight, as U.S. bond yields stabilized following a drop from one-year highs.

Riskier currencies including the Australian and New Zealand dollars retreated after logging big gains on Tuesday. Bitcoin turned lower after earlier topping $55,000 for the first time since Feb. 22.

Against the yen, another traditional safe-haven currency, the greenback traded 0.3% higher at 108.80 yen, following its retreat from a nine-month peak of 109.235.

Investors will have their eye on U.S. inflation numbers due later on Wednesday.

Traders are also wary bond yields could rise further this week as the market will have to digest a $120 billion auction of 3-, 10-, and 30-year Treasuries, especially after last week’s soft auction and a 7-year note sale that saw a spike in yields.

“Particularly the latter (the 10-year auction today will be followed by a 30-year UST auction tomorrow) is the main risk to market sentiment today should low demand reinstate pressure on the fragile UST market,” said ING strategists in a daily note.

“Equally, a good take-up could reiterate the risk-friendly mood in FX markets observed yesterday. Hence, one should get ready for a day of volatility with the FX market looking for signs of confirmation as to whether the risk rally yesterday was a short-term blip or the tentative start of a trend.”

The dollar index has closely tracked a surge in Treasury yields in recent weeks, both because higher yields increase the currency’s appeal and as the bond rout shook investor confidence, spurring demand for the safest assets.

The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield stabilised around 1.5630% on Wednesday in European trade after a three-day drop from a one-year high of 1.6250%.

The dollar index strengthened about 0.1% to 92.099, after retreating from a 3-1/2-month high of 92.506 the previous day.

Bond investors have been selling on bets that a faster-than-expected economic rebound would spark a surge in inflation, with President Joe Biden expected to sign a $1.9 trillion coronavirus aid package as soon as this week.

The euro was 0.1% lower at $1.18890.

The European Central Bank meets Thursday and one topic will dominate: what to do about rising sovereign bond yields which if left unchecked could derail efforts to get a coronavirus-hit economy back on track.

“Although the recent move in bond yields has not spared the euro zone, the tightening in financial conditions has been far less of a problem for the ECB given the different nominal starting point,” said Geoff Yu, EMEA market strategist at Bank of New York Mellon.

“Furthermore, the dollar’s consequent strength from higher U.S. real yields represents a loosening in financial conditions for the euro zone and eases the pressure on the ECB to act. If anything, the ECB will hope to maintain the status quo for monetary policy in absolute and relative terms.”

The Aussie weakened 0.4% to $0.7691 after jumping 1% overnight, as a top central banker rebuffed market chatter about early rate increases, helping pull local yields lower.

New Zealand’s kiwi slipped 0.3% to $0.7153 following a 0.8% increase on Tuesday.

In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin traded flat at 54,910. It hit a record high of $58,354.14 on Feb. 21. (Reuters)

Mar. 10 - Vice President Ma'ruf Amin, here on Wednesday, projected the Halal Industrial Estate (KIH) to become a pull factor in the domestic industry that results in the creation of more jobs for people.

"Development of the halal product industrial estate is aimed at making it a pull factor for the domestic industry that could create more jobs and enhance national economic development," Amin stated during a webinar on the Indonesian sharia economy.

The vice president believes that development of the halal industrial estate will additionally encourage more small- and medium-scale entrepreneurs to be part of the global halal value chain.

The KIH and halal zone development in an industrial estate have become strategic moves to boost productivity.

"With the establishment of the halal industrial estate, all services related to a product's halal status would be provided as a one-stop service," he remarked.

The government has named two KIH located in East Java and the Banten industrial estate. The two KIH are SAFE and LOCK Halal Industrial Park (HIP) in Sidoarjo, East Java, and Modern Cikande Industrial Estate in Serang, Banten.

Four other industrial estates -- Bintan Inti Industrial Estate, Batamindo Industrial Estate, Jakarta Industrial Estate in Pulogadung, and Surya Borneo Industrial Estate in Central Kalimantan -- are in the process of preparing to have halal cluster.

Amin stated that the development of KIH was expected to attract foreign investors to boost the production of halal products in the country. (Antaranews)

Mar. 10 - Head of the Southeast Sulawesi Industry and Trade Agency Sitti Saleha drew attention to a spike in vaname shrimp exports to Japan.

"Based on the export trend, vaname shrimp exports increased this year as compared to the previous year," Saleha stated here on Wednesday.

In 2020, some 259.39 tons of vaname shrimp, valued at Rp28.59 billion, were exported from Southeast Sulawesi to Japan.

"Meanwhile, for this year, although just having entered the second week of March, we already exported 102 tons. This figure will continue to grow in line with the export demand for the next eight months," Saleha remarked.

Saleha noted that entrepreneurs in the fishery sector in the area were recently inclined to do business in the vaname shrimp commodity as compared to exporting other types of shrimp.

"Although the price of vaname shrimp is much lower than that of sito shrimp, vaname shrimp are more widely sold and available in the market. Hence, the fishery product business is quite promising," she pointed out.

The vaname shrimps for exports come from farmers in the districts of Konawe Selatan, Muna, Kolaka, and Bombana.

Saleha affirmed that the agency will constantly encourage entrepreneurs to export directly to boost the regional economy. (Antaranews)