VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Mar. 5 - The majority of global COVID-19 deaths have been in countries where many people are obese, with coronavirus fatality rates 10 times higher in nations where at least 50% of adults are overweight, a global study found on Thursday.

The report, which described a “dramatic” correlation between countries’ COVID-19 death and obesity rates, found that 90% or 2.2 million of the 2.5 million deaths from the pandemic disease so far were in countries with high levels of obesity.

The study analysed the COVID-19 death figures from Johns Hopkins University in the United States and the World Health Organization’s Global Health Observatory data on obesity.

Strikingly, the authors said, there is no example of a country where people are generally not overweight or obese having high COVID-19 death rates.

“Look at countries like Japan and South Korea, where they have very low levels of COVID-19 deaths as well as very low levels of adult obesity,” said Tim Lobstein, an expert advisor to the World Obesity Federation and visiting professor at Australia’s Sydney University who co-led the report.

“They have prioritised public health across a range of measures, including population weight, and it has paid off in the pandemic.”

By contrast, the report found that in the United States and Britain, for example, both COVID-19 death rates and obesity levels were among the highest.

The United Kingdom has the world’s third-highest coronavirus death rate and the fourth-highest obesity rate - 184 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 and 63.7% of adults overweight, according to WHO data - followed by the United States, with 152.49 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 and 67.9% of adults overweight.

John Wilding, a professor of medicine at Britain’s University of Liverpool and president of the World Obesity Federation, said obesity should be recognised as a key COVID-19 health risk and taken into account in vaccination plans.

“It’s really important that we recognise that obesity ... increases the risk,” he said in a statement about the report’s findings. “Therefore, like other diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease, people with obesity should be considered for early priority in vaccination programmes across the world.” (Reuters)

Mar. 5 - The United Nations human rights investigator on Myanmar said on Thursday the military there has murdered, beaten and unlawfully arrested protesters since its illegal Feb. 1 coup and he called for wide-ranging punitive sanctions.

Thomas Andrews urged the U.N. Security Council - which meets on Myanmar on Friday - to impose a global arms embargo and targeted economic sanctions on the junta and refer alleged atrocities to the International Criminal Court for prosecution.

States should impose sanctions on the Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise, now controlled by the military and its largest source of revenue, he said in a report to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva. (Reuters)

Mar. 5 -  Chief of the Drug and Food Control Agency (BPOM), Penny K Lukitosaid to maintain the quality of COVID-19 vaccines during distribution, the temperature at which they are stored needs to be closely supervised.

"The COVID-19 vaccines which are currently being distributed must be kept at a temperature of 2-8 degrees Celsius. The temperature during the delivery and storage of COVID-19 vaccines must always be maintained to prevent any decline in the quality of vaccines till they reach end-users,” she said in a written statement released on Thursday.

To that end, BPOM is continuously supervising the vaccine supply chain, including pharmaceutical firms and government pharmaceutical installations (IFP) at provincial and district levels, till the vaccine is administered to people.

In addition, BPOM has drawn attention to the need for competent IFP managers. IFP managers handling vaccines must be competent and apply good distribution practices along the distribution channel to maintain quality, it stated. (Antaranews)

Mar. 5 - Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment, Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, has urged regional governments to focus on disaster mitigation in tsunami-prone villages through mangrove conservation.

“I think all governors and district heads have looked at the spread of (tsunami-) prone (villages) on the map. Let us exercise caution. Don't think since no (tsunami) occurred in the past one year, three years, or five years, so there won't be (another tsunami). It may happen tomorrow, or even after this moment, since nobody can control earthquakes,” he said during a national coordination meeting on disaster mitigation in 2021 here on Thursday.

Tsunami-prone villages are spread over most parts of Indonesia and regional governments need to pay attention to the spread of tsunami- and earthquake-prone villages, he stressed.

“Don't say we are not prepared. We all must be prepared. We must not cry about something only because we are not prepared,” he remarked.

Data from the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) shows that the number of earthquakes increased to 8,264 in 2020 from an annual average of 6,445, though the figure showed a decline compared to 11,920 in 2018 and 11,515 in 2019.

“Nobody imagined a 9.1-magnitude earthquake and a subsequent tsunami would devastate Aceh province in 2004,” Pandjaitan said.

"Indeed, a quake cannot be predicted and its recurrence period is long, thus making people forget it easily and (end up) unprepared. Thus, it seems it happened all by sudden,” he added. (antaranews)