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Hospitals asked to convert 40% capacity for COVID care
22
January

Hospitals asked to convert 40% capacity for COVID care

Published in Indonesia Today

The Indonesian Ministry of Health has asked hospitals across Indonesia to convert 40 percent of their health service capacity for COVID-19 treatment.

Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin has issued a circular to all hospitals on the conversion of health services for COVID-19 handling, the ministry's director general of health services, Abdul Kadir, said at the West Merdeka 9 Forum here on Friday.

In addition to asking hospitals to convert 40 percent of inpatient rooms for COVID-19 treatment, the ministry has also asked all hospitals to convert 25 percent of ICU room capacity to provide ICU services to COVID-19 inpatients.

"This request is not only for government-owned hospitals, but also for all hospitals, whether they are regional public hospitals, TNI (military) and Polri (Police) hospitals, BUMN (state-owned) hospitals, or public hospitals," he added.

The decision has been taken owing to a spike in COVID-19 cases across Indonesia, which has burdened hospitals treating coronavirus patients.

"The circular is requesting all hospitals to increase capacity by converting 40 percent of inpatient rooms. If hospitals cannot put additional beds due to limited facilities, we are asking for conversion, how to shift the hospital beds that were previously for non-service services to serve COVID-19 patients now," Kadir said.

The current level of hospital bed usage for COVID-19 patients has reached around 64.83 percent nationally. Of approximately 81 thousand inpatient rooms, independent isolation rooms, and ICU rooms for COVID-19 patients, around 52 thousand have been filled, he informed.

However, in certain areas, especially those in the red zones, the occupancy rate of inpatient rooms for COVID-19 patients has reached between 80 percent and 89 percent, he added.

In DKI Jakarta, the occupancy rate of inpatient rooms has reached 82 percent. At the Emergency Hospital in Wisma Atlet, which only deals with COVID-19 cases, more than 80 percent of rooms are occupied, Kadir said.

Tangerang district head Ahmed Zaki Iskandar revealed that at present, about 90 percent of hospital beds are occupied by COVID-19 patients. (Antaranews)

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Ministry: Over 132,000 medical workers given COVID-19 jabs
22
January

Ministry: Over 132,000 medical workers given COVID-19 jabs

Published in Indonesia Today

More than 132 thousand medical workers from 13,535 health facilities in 92 districts/cities of 34 provinces in Indonesia have received COVID-19 shots, the Health Ministry's spokesperson for the vaccination program said.

"From January 14 (2021) to Friday (January 22) at 1 p.m., more than 132 thousand, or 22 percent of 598,483 medical workers who have been registered for this first phase vaccination program, have received the COVID-19 jabs," Siti Nadia Tarmizi informed.

Speaking at a virtual press briefing that ANTARA joined from Jakarta on Friday,  Siti Nadia  said if all 598,483 medical workers are vaccinated, another 888,282 paramedics will be inoculated as part of the second phase of the program.

"As we have previously targeted, some 1.4 million medical workers will have got administered with the COVID-19 vaccine by February," she said, adding that about 20,154 paramedics could not be inoculated because of several reasons.

Several of them reportedly contracted COVID-19, while several others had comorbidities or were pregnant, she elaborated.

Ahead of Indonesia's national vaccination program, the Indonesian Ulema Council had issued a fatwa, or decision, on the halal status of China's Sinovac vaccine.

Indonesia's Drug and Food Control Agency (BPOM) also issued an emergency-use authorization (EUA) for the vaccine, allowing the government to commence its vaccination program on January 13, 2021.

President Joko Widodo, Indonesian Military (TNI) Commander, Air Chief Marshal Hadi Tjahjanto, and several public figures, including television personality Raffi Ahmad, received the country's first COVID-19 jabs on the day.

The Health Ministry revealed earlier that it would take 15 months to vaccinate about 181.5 million people under the national COVID-19 vaccination program.

"We need 15 months to accomplish it. The time-frame for conducting the vaccination is counted from January 2021 to March 2022," Siti Nadia  stated.

During the period, the government is targeting to inoculate some 181.5 million people, including 1.3 million paramedics and 17.4 million public sector workers in 34 provinces, she informed.

Tarmizi said the first phase of the government's immunization program will be further divided into two stages: January-April, 2021 and April, 2021-March, 2022. (Antaranews)

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Biden seeks five-year extension of New START arms treaty with Russia
22
January

Biden seeks five-year extension of New START arms treaty with Russia

Published in International News

U.S. President Joe Biden will seek a five-year extension to the New START arms control treaty with Russia, the White House said on Thursday, in one of the first major foreign policy decisions of the new administration ahead of the treaty’s expiration in early February.

 
“The President has long been clear that the New START treaty is in the national security interests of the United States. And this extension makes even more sense when the relationship with Russia is adversarial as it is at this time,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a briefing.
 
She also said Biden had “tasked” the U.S. intelligence community for its full assessment of the Solar Winds cyber breach, Russian interference in the 2020 election, Russia’s use of chemical weapons against opposition leader Alexei Navalny and alleged bounties on U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan.
 
“Even as we work with Russia to advance U.S. interests, so too we work to hold Russia to account for its reckless and adversarial actions,” Psaki said.
 
The arms control treaty, which is due to expire on Feb. 5, limits the United States and Russia to deploying no more than 1,550 strategic nuclear warheads each.
 
In addition to restricting the number of deployed strategic nuclear weapons to its lowest level in decades, New START also limits the land- and submarine-based missiles and bombers that deliver them.
 
In a statement, the Pentagon said that Americans were “much safer” with the treaty intact and extended.
 
“Just as we engage Russia in ways that advance American interests, we in the Department will remain clear-eyed about the challenges Russia poses and committed to defending the nation against their reckless and adversarial actions,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said.
 
The treaty’s lapse would end all restraints on deployments of U.S. and Russian strategic nuclear warheads and the delivery systems that carry them, potentially fueling a new arms race, policy experts have said.
 
Earlier, a source familiar with the decision told Reuters that U.S. lawmakers have been briefed on Biden’s decision on the New START treaty.
 
The Kremlin said on Wednesday it remained committed to extending New START and would welcome efforts promised by the Biden administration to reach agreement. (Reuters)
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Biden to increase pandemic-related food aid
22
January

Biden to increase pandemic-related food aid

Published in International News

U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday will sign two executive orders aimed at speeding pandemic stimulus checks to families who need it most and increasing food aid for children who normally rely on school meals as a main source for nutrition.


Biden, who has proposed a $1.9 trillion stimulus package, is using the two orders to try to ease the burden on people while the legislation is negotiated in Congress. He has made fighting the pandemic an early focus of his new administration.
 
The pandemic recession has hit Americans hard. Some 16 million are now receiving some type of unemployment benefit, and an estimated 29 million don’t have enough to eat. Women, minorities and low-income service workers have been disproportionately impacted, with Black and Hispanic workers facing higher jobless rates than white workers.
 
“We’re at a precarious moment in our economy,” Brian Deese, director of the White House National Economic Council, told reporters in a preview of the orders.
 
He said the actions are not a substitute for comprehensive legislative relief, “but they will provide a critical lifeline to millions of American families.”
 
In the first order, Biden will ask the Treasury Department to consider taking steps to expand and improve delivery of stimulus checks, such as establishing online tools for claiming payments.
 
“Many Americans faced challenges receiving the first round of direct payments and as many as 8 million eligible households did not receive the payments issued in March,” a White House fact sheet said.
 
Biden will also seek to increase access to food for millions of children who are missing meals because schools are closed due to the pandemic.
 
He will ask the Agriculture Department (USDA) to consider issuing new guidance that would increase the aid given to families who normally rely on schools to provide a main meal of the day for their children.
 
It could provide a family with three children more than $100 of additional support every two months.
 
“USDA will consider issuing new guidance that would allow states to increase SNAP emergency allotments for those who need it most. This would be the first step to ensuring that an additional 12 million people get enhanced SNAP benefits to keep nutritious food on the table,” the fact sheet said.
 
Biden’s second order will restore collective bargaining power and worker protections by revoking three related orders issued by President Donald Trump during his term, which ended on Wednesday. It also promotes a $15-an-hour minimum wage.
 
The federal minimum wage has been at $7.25 an hour since 2009.
 
Biden’s directive also eliminates a Trump order that allowed federal agencies to move many career federal employees into a category without job protections and putting them at risk of being fired.
 
The White House fact sheet called the Trump order “nothing more than an attempt to gut the career civil servant class and further marginalize career civil service employees.”
 
“Its existence threatens the critical protections of career employees and provides a pathway to burrow political appointees into the civil service,” it said. (Reuters)
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