VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

New Zealand on Monday confirmed its first case of COVID-19 in the community in months in a 56-year-old woman, but said close contacts of the recently returned traveller had so far tested negative.

The woman, who returned to New Zealand on Dec. 30, had tested positive for the South African strain of the virus after leaving a two-week mandatory quarantine where she had twice tested negative, COVID-19 response minister Chris Hipkins said.

No other community cases had been reported since the woman’s case was disclosed on Sunday and authorities said the source of the infection was probably a fellow returnee at the quarantine facility.

Authorities were looking at whether the virus was spreading through the ventilation and air conditioning systems in these facilities, Hipkins said.

New Zealand Health Chief Ashley Bloomfield said 15 people had been identified as close contacts of the woman and were being contacted.

However, her closest contacts, her husband and hairdresser, had tested negative, which was encouraging.

Confirmation of the case led Australia to immediately suspend a travel bubble with New Zealand for 72 hours.

Anyone arriving from New Zealand since Jan. 14 will need to isolate and stay home until they test negative for COVID-19. Anyone arriving in the next 72 hours will have to go straight into hotel quarantine.

“This will be done out of an abundance of caution whilst more is learned about the event and the case,” Australian Health Minister Greg Hunt said late on Monday.

He said the case was of concern because of the transmissibility of the South African variant and because the woman had been in the community.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said her Australian counterpart, Scott Morrison, informed her of the move on Monday afternoon.

“I advised him that we have confidence in our systems and processes, but it is Australia’s decision as to how they manage their borders,” Ardern told TVNZ.

New Zealand, one of the most successful developed nations in controlling the spread of the pandemic, last recorded a community coronavirus transmission in November, according to the Health Ministry website.

A tough lockdown and geographical isolation helped the country of 5 million virtually eliminate the novel coronavirus within its borders.

New Zealand has had only 1,927 confirmed cases. But with the pandemic raging globally, more people are returning with infections, including the new variants, raising concerns the virus may spread in the community again.

The woman, who lives in Northland on New Zealand’s North Island, quarantined on arrival in a managed isolation facility in Auckland where several highly virulent COVID-19 cases have been recorded in quarantine facilities in recent weeks.

Bloomfield said the South African variant may be more transmissible but there was not yet enough research available. (Reuters)

Indonesia's capital city, Jakarta reported 3,512 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, thereby taking the total tally to 249,815 since the pandemic began to hit the Indonesian capital.

The count of new COVID-19 cases was derived from the result of swab tests conducted on 15,531 specimens the day before, with 3,512 of them testing positive and 10,100 others testing negative for the infection, according to data from the Jakarta provincial government on its official website corona.jakarta.go.id,

The single-day count of COVID-19 cases within the course of 24 hours, ending on Sunday, was higher than that of Saturday (Jan 23) at 3,285, Thursday (Jan 21) at 3,151, Tuesday (Jan 19) at 2,563, Monday (Jan 18) at 2,361, and Sunday (Jan 17) at 3,395.

However, the figure was below the number of new cases on Saturday (Jan 16) at 3,536, on Wednesday (Jan 20) at 3,786, and Friday (Jan 22) at 3,792, an all-time high during the pandemic.

"This is the highest in terms of cases found in daily tests, with 3,619 positive cases resulting from the PCR tests held on Thursday (Jan 21), while the other 173 cases are based on the results of tests conducted at a laboratory of a private hospital in the previous period of seven days," the report stated.

According to the report, Jakarta's daily COVID-19 recoveries had reached 2,280 on Sunday, thereby taking the total recoveries to 221,567, or 88.7 percent of the total COVID-19 cases at 249,815.

A total of 24,224 people are receiving hospital treatment or are conducting self-isolation. Meanwhile, 4,024 people succumbed to the infection, accounting for 1.6 percent of the total positive cases.

Based on the number of tests, Jakarta recorded the COVID-19 positivity rate of 16.5 percent in the past week, well above the WHO standard of five percent.

In total, Jakarta's COVID-19 positivity rate since the onset of the pandemic in March 2020 stood at 9.8 percent. (antaranews)

Home Affairs Minister Tito Karnavian issued Ministerial Instruction Number 2 of 2021 on the extension of restrictions on the movement of people (PPKM) in Java and Bali to avert the spread of COVID-19.

Chief of the Information Center at the Home Affairs Ministry Benni Irwan confirmed the ministerial instruction signed on January 22, 2021.

Restrictions on the movement of people in seven provinces are extended for another two weeks, starting on January 26

The seven provinces are Jakarta, West Java, Banten, Central Java, Yogyakarta, East Java, and Bali.

Restrictions on the movement of people will be intensified in prioritized districts and cities in the seven provinces.

The prioritized districts and cities in West Java are Bogor District, Bekasi District, Cimahi City, Bogor City, Depok City, Bekasi City, and Greater Bandung.

In Banten Province, those prioritized includes Tangerang District, Tangerang City, and South Tangerang City, while Greater Semarang Raya, Greater Banyumas, and Greater Surakarta, among others in Central Java; and Yogyakarta City, Bantul, Gunungkidul, Sleman, and Kulonprogo districts in Yogyakarta have been accorded priority.

Others prioritized comprise Greater Surabaya and Greater Malang in East Java and Badung District and Denpasar City in Bali.

The extension of restrictions on the movement of people is based on the result of monitoring conducted by the COVID-19 Handling and National Economic Recovery Committee (KPC-PEN) to the first phase of restrictions on the movement of people on January 11-25, 2021.

Through the instruction, the minister urged regional heads to streamline the restrictions on public activities that will potentially cause the spread of COVID-19 in accordance with their respective regions.

With the restrictions, the number of employees working from home must account for 75 percent of the total personnel, the number of dine-in visitors at restaurants must be at most 25 percent of the seating capacity, and the number of worshipers at places of worship must at the most be 50 percent of the capacity.

The Indonesian government has decided to extend restrictions on the movement of people in Java and Bali for another fortnight, from January 26 to February 8.

The government reached the decision during a limited meeting at the Presidential Palace on Thursday (Jan 14) after evaluating the first phase of such restrictions that took effect on January 11-25.

"Based on the evaluation, President (Joko Widodo) ordered the extension of restriction on the movement of people (for another two weeks) from January 26 to February 8," Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto noted during a virtual press conference here on last Thursday.

To this end, the home affairs minister will issue an instruction to governors in Java and Bali that are expected to evaluate the restrictions on the basis of specified parameters to decide whether they are still necessary in their respective provinces, Hartarto explained. (antaranews)

Twenty-two aid groups working in Yemen called on Sunday for the new U.S. administration to revoke the designation of Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi movement as a foreign terrorist organization, saying it puts millions of lives and the peace process at risk.

The U.S. State Department has initiated a review of the designation, which came into effect Jan. 19, the day before President Joe Biden’s inauguration. The designation freezes any U.S.-related assets of the Houthis, bans Americans from doing business with them and makes it a crime to provide support or resources to the movement.

“This designation comes at a time when famine is a very real threat to a country devastated by six years of conflict, and it must be revoked immediately. Any disruption to lifesaving aid operations and commercial imports of food, fuel, medicine and other essential goods will put millions of lives at risk,” the aid groups’ statement said.

The United States has exempted aid groups, the United Nations, the Red Cross and the export of agricultural commodities, medicine, and medical devices from its designation.

But the aid organisations say the legal implications of the designation are not fully understood, and the exemptions do not cover enough of the commercial sector.

“The licences and associated guidance do not provide sufficient guarantees to international banks, shipping companies and suppliers that still face the risk of falling foul of US laws. As a result, many in the commercial sector will likely feel the risk is too high to continue working in Yemen,” they said.

Signatories to the statement include Mercy Corps, the Norwegian Refugee Council, Oxfam, Save the Children and the International Rescue Committee.

A Saudi Arabia-led military coalition intervened in Yemen in 2015, backing government forces fighting the Houthis in a war widely seen as a proxy conflict between U.S. ally Saudi Arabia and Iran. U.N. officials are trying to revive peace talks to end the war. (Reuters)