VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesian President Joko Widodo became the first person in the country to receive a COVID-19 vaccine shot on Wednesday, as the government launched an ambitious vaccination campaign in a bid to stem one of the worst coronavirus outbreaks in Asia.
The immunisation campaign aims to inoculate 181.5 million people, with the first to be vaccinated receiving the CoronaVac vaccine from China’s Sinovac Biotech, which Indonesia authorised for emergency use on Monday.

Dressed in a white shirt and wearing a face mask, the president, who is known as Jokowi, received the jab in his left arm at the presidential palace.

The president’s doctor Abdul Muthalib said Jokowi said he did not feel any pain.

Budi Gunadi Sadikin, Indonesia’s health minister who also due to be vaccinated on Wednesday, has said nearly 1.5 million medical workers would be inoculated by February, followed by public servants and the general population within 15 months.

Representatives from the Indonesian Medical Association and the country’s biggest Muslim group, Nahdlatul Ulama, also received a shot.

Indonesia on Tuesday reported a daily record 302 coronavirus deaths, taking fatalities to 24,645. Its infections are at their peak, averaging more than 9,000 a day, with 846,765 total cases.

Analysts credited a rise in Indonesia’s stocks to the launch of vaccinations with the main index opening up around 0.7% on Wednesday.

“Vaccinations contributed a fairly positive market sentiment,” said Hans Kwee, director at investment manager Anugerah Mega Investama.

Budi has said two-thirds of the 270 million population must be vaccinated to achieve herd immunity.

Olivia Herlinda, a researcher at the Center for Indonesia’s Strategic Development Initiatives, said the government had not taken into account the vaccine efficacy and virus reproduction rate to justify its herd immunity focus.

Epidemiologist Masdalina Pane said that vaccines had to be accompanied by increased testing and tracing.

“There’s not one bullet,” she said.

Budi said Indonesia’s testing and tracing needed improving, adding there was an imbalance in testing resources across the archipelago.

Indonesia has said its trials showed CoronaVac has an efficacy rate of 65.3%, but Brazilian researchers said on Tuesday the vaccine was only 50.4% effective.

Turkish researchers said in December it showed a 91.25% efficacy based on interim analysis.

Indonesia expects to get another 122.5 million doses of CoronaVac by January 2022, with about 30 million doses due by the end of the first quarter this year.

It has also secured nearly 330 million doses of other vaccines, including from AstraZeneca and Pfizer and its partner BioNTech.

Indonesia has added 7,068 recoveries and 10,047 fresh COVID-19 infections in a single day, according to data from the Task Force for COVID-19 Handling, released on Tuesday.

With this, the total tally of COVID-19 cases in the country has reached 846,765, while the number of recoveries has touched 695,807. Meanwhile, with 302 people succumbing to the infection in a single day, the death toll has climbed to 24,645, data from the task force shows.

At present, 54,827 people in 510 districts and cities in 34 provinces have been categorized as suspected coronavirus patients.

With 70,309 specimens examined as of Tuesday, the total number of specimens examined in laboratories for the presence of coronavirus has reached 7,991,379. The first two cases of COVID-19 surfaced in the country on March 2, 2020.

The number of COVID-19 cases in Indonesia burgeoned significantly over the past 2.5 months, Doni Monardo, the Task Force head for COVID-19 Handling, concurrently the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) head, stated.

"Last November, our active cases were the lowest, at 12.2 percent, and cumulatively, 54 thousand people (were infected). However, today or yesterday, the number of our active cases reached 123 thousand. This indicates an over twofold increase, or to be precise 122 percent," Monardo remarked while welcoming the arrival of 15 million doses of the Sinovac vaccine from China at the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, Tangerang, Banten Province, on Tuesday.

Indonesia will commence vaccination against COVID-19 by administering the Sinovac vaccine on Wednesday (Jan 13), with President Joko Widodo receiving the first shot.

The BNPB head noted that the vaccination program must run smoothly, with strict public discipline being ensured in applying health protocols.

Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Commission (KNKT) confirmed it has received the crashed Sriwijaya Air flight SJ-182's flight data recorder, which was retrieved by Navy divers from the aircraft's wreckage on Tuesday.

The Boeing 737-500 jet's flight data recorder was handed over by Indonesian Military (TNI) Commander, Air Chief Marshal Hadi Tjahjanto, to National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) head Bagus Puruhito, who then gave it to KNKT head Soerjanto Tjahjono.

Meanwhile, the Navy’s divers are still trying to find and retrieve the cockpit voice recorder of the plane, which crashed into the ocean near Jakarta shortly after taking off from Soekarno-Hatta International Airport on January 9, 2021.

KNKT head Tjahjono thanked all parties for their tireless efforts for finding and retrieving the flight data recorder. KNTK personnel will try to download the data from the device, he said.

KNKT personnel will need between two and five days to do their work and have pledged to share information on whether or not the flight data can be read, he added.

"If we are successful in revealing the content, we are going to share its general points," Tjahjono informed.

The Indonesian Navy’s divers found and retrieved the flight data recorder of the commercial jet from the seabed around 4:30 p.m. local time on Tuesday.

It was found lying about 23 meters below the water surface.

The black box of the aircraft, which crashed into the Thousand Islands waters on January 9, 2021, was transported to the Jakarta International Container Terminal (JICT) in Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta.

Divers from the Navy's joint team put the flight data recorder (FDR) in a box and transported it on a naval sea rider boat headed to the JICT.

Commander of the Navy's task force for the Sriwijaya Air search operation, Commodore Yayan Sofyan, and director of the Navy's operational affairs at the Frogman Commando Center (Puskopaska), Colonel Johan Wahyudi, accompanied the black box to the JICT.

The Transportation Ministry had earlier confirmed that airport authorities had lost contact with the Sriwijaya Air flight SJ-182, serving the Jakarta-Pontianak route, around 2:40 p.m. local time on Saturday (January 9, 2021).

According to the ministry, the last contact with the Boeing 737-500 jet, bearing the registration number PK-CLC, was made at 11 nautical miles north of Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, after the aircraft crossed an altitude of 11 thousand feet and was ascending to 13 thousand feet.

The flight took off from Soekarno-Hatta Airport at 2:40 p.m. local time on Saturday and was scheduled to land at Supadio Airport in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, at 3:50 p.m. local time. It was carrying 50 passengers and 12 crew members on board. (Antaranews)