VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Mar. 5 - Sinovac Biotech’s COVID-19 vaccine may not trigger sufficient antibody responses against a new variant identified in Brazil, a small-sample lab study showed.

The emergence of variants of the new coronavirus has raised concern that vaccines and treatments that were developed based on previous strains may not work as robustly.

Plasma samples taken from eight people vaccinated with Sinovac’s CoronaVac failed to efficiently neutralize the P.1 lineage variant, or 20J/501Y.V3, researchers said in a paper published on Monday ahead of peer-review.

“These results suggest that P.1 virus might escape from neutralizing antibodies induced by... CoronaVac,” researchers at the University of São Paulo in Brazil, Washington University School of Medicine in the United States, and a few other institutions said in the paper.

CoronaVac is being used in mass vaccination drives in countries including China, Brazil, Indonesia and Turkey.

Although the study suggests re-infection may occur in vaccinated individuals, the protection given by CoronaVac against severe COVID-19 may indicate other mechanisms in the human immune system, aside from antibodies, may also contribute to reducing disease severity, researchers said.

A Sinovac spokesman was not immediately available for comment. Chief executive Yin Weidong said in a programme aired by state-backed broadcaster CGTN on Thursday the company is “fully capable” of using current research and manufacturing capacity to develop a new vaccine against variants if necessary.

He also said the process would take much less time than it took to develop CoronaVac. (Reuters)

Mar. 5 - Germany has expressed readiness to provide funding of Rp41.25 trillion to support the development of green infrastructure in Indonesia under a cooperation scheme targeted at reducing carbon emissions in urban areas.

Germany and Indonesia launched the cooperation virtually on Thursday (March 4) in the presence of several high-ranking officials of the two nations, the Indonesian Embassy in Berlin noted in a written statement released on Friday.

The high-ranking officials comprised Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, Minister of National Development Planning/Chief of the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) Suharso Monoarfa, Indonesia’s Ambassador to Germany Arif Havas Oegroseno, Federal Minister of Economic and Development Affairs Gerd Muller, and German Ambassador to Indonesia Peter Schoof.

Pandjaitan highlighted that Indonesia and Germany, as fellow G20 members, had applied the model of shared responsibility in the context of the present significant global issues, especially climate change, through the cooperation called "Indonesia-Germany Initiative for Green Infrastructure."

"In the capacity of coordinating minister for maritime affairs and investment, I would like to convince all parties present that the initiative will achieve its target. Our aspirations to improve the environment, lower carbon emissions, and offer better service facilities for the public are clearly visible," he affirmed.

Through the cooperation scheme, Germany will extend 2.5 billion euros (Rp41.25 trillion) through the course of five years through partnership with the German National bank (KfW).

"In future, we will be able to witness cleaner rivers, declining sea litter, wider access to clean water, and more effective and better public transport modes," he stated.

Apart from the fund, the cooperation will also be realized through the transfer of technology and campaign to promote public awareness. (Antaranews)

Mar. 5 - Vice President Ma’ruf Amin is optimistic that Indonesia would be able to revert to being an upper middle-income country after the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We were an upper (middle) income country. However, we fell to the bracket of lower (middle) income country. We are upbeat about returning to the category of upper middle-income country again," Amin remarked during an online dialog on Friday.

COVID vaccination is one of the programs for reviving the national economy amid the pandemic. The government has set a target to vaccinate over 181 million or 70 percent of Indonesia's population against COVID-19 to create herd immunity.

"In addition to applying health protocols, PSBB (large-scale social restrictions), and PPKM (restriction on public activities), we have rolled out the vaccination program since January 2021. The vaccination is considered a game changer to solve the COVID-19 problem," he remarked.

The World Bank designated Indonesia as an upper middle-income country in mid-2020. To be assigned the status, the national economic growth must reach five percent annually.

In the wake of the pandemic, the Indonesian economy contracted, thereby returning it to the status of low middle-income country. (Antaranews)

Mar. 5 - Over two million Indonesian children would be plunged into poverty if the government halted social assistance to poor households in 2021, according to a survey.

"The child poverty rate may increase. UNICEF has forecast that more than two million Indonesian children would fall into poverty if social assistance for households were to be stopped in 2021," Deputy Director of the SMERU Research Institute Atia Yuma stated during an online discussion in Jakarta on Thursday.

Almost 30 percent of the 12,216 households surveyed are concerned about not being in a position to feed their families, Yuma remarked while quoting the result of a survey conducted by UNICEF, UNDP, Prospera, and SMERU Institute.

"Declining income and disrupted food supply system are the main factors leading to food vulnerability," he stated.

The survey conducted in October and November 2020 also found that 51.5 percent of the households had no savings that can be utilized as emergency fund. Meanwhile, 27.3 percent of them had pawned their goods.

Several children work to meet their daily needs in order to survive, he remarked.

"We also found an around seven percent increase in the number of children employed and nearly seven percent of the households having children employed and 2.5 percent of them have been employed since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic," he pointed out.

The survey also showed that 57.3 percent of the parents faced difficulties in accessing internet connection, thereby resulting in 20.5 percent of the children experiencing problems in concentration in their studies. In fact, 12.9 percent of children can easily become irate.

Hence, SMERU suggested that the government will lend greater support to children in the form of social protection, health, and nutrition. (Antaranews)