VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Minister of Transportation, Budi Karya Sumadi, on Tuesday outlined three instructions from President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) on the handling of the Sriwijaya Air flight SJ-182 crash.

"During the meeting, President Joko Widodo gave instructions on the following accelerated steps," Sumadi said at a press conference here on Wednesday.

President Widodo has ordered that rescuers find the black box, retrieve the victims' bodies, and the wreckage from the plane as quickly as possible.

"The FDR (Flight Data Recorder) has been found," the minister confirmed.

President Widodo has also asked that insurance and compensation be immediately released to the victims' families, in accordance with existing regulations.

President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) is scheduled to receive his first COVID-19 vaccine shot in the morning of Wednesday (Jan 13).

"He (Jokowi) is scheduled to be administered the first shot of the vaccine tomorrow morning," Deputy of Protocol, Press, and Media of the Presidential Secretariat Bey Machmudin noted in a statement here on Tuesday.

The Presidential Secretariat and Health Ministry have readied the mechanism to inoculate the president that will then be aired through live streaming.

"Tomorrow, administration of the first vaccine shot will be aired via live streaming. People can watch the process live tomorrow," he stated.

On Monday (Jan 11), the National Food and Drug Control Agency (BPOM) had issued the emergency use authorization (EUA) for CoronaVac, which is the COVID-19 vaccine produced by China's Sinovac Biotech Ltd.

"The CoronaVac has met the requirements to get the EUA," BPOM Chief Penny K. Lukito remarked.

Before arriving at a decision to issue the EUA, the agency had taken into account results of the vaccine’s clinical tests conducted in Indonesia, Brazil, and Turkey that demonstrated safety and efficacy in preventing the COVID-19 infection.

The vaccine also met the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines of a minimum efficacy of 50 percent to obtain the license.

The clinical test in Bandung, West Java, conducted by state-run vaccine manufacturer Bio Farma and Sinovac found the vaccine to be 65.3-percent effective, while results of clinical tests in Turkey and Brazil showed the vaccine to respectively have an efficacy of 91 percent and 78 percent.

The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) also issued a halal fatwa for CoronaVac. (Antaranews)

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga told a meeting of ruling party executives on Tuesday he would declare a state of emergency for the three western prefectures of Osaka, Kyoto and Hyogo to stem the spread of COVID-19, Kyodo news reported.

Responding to pressure from Tokyo and three neighbouring prefectures in eastern Japan, Suga last week declared a one-month state of emergency for that region until Feb. 7.

But the number of coronavirus cases has also climbed in the west, prompting Osaka, Kyoto and Hyogo to seek a state of emergency too. The government is finalising plans to do so on Wednesday, and could also consider adding the central prefectures of Aichi - home to Toyota Motor Corp - and Gifu, Kyodo reported, citing government sources.

Adding those five prefectures would mean a state of emergency for about half of Japan’s population of 126 million people.

Japan’s top government spokesman, Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato, did not confirm the report, saying only that the government would consider the measures for a “swift response” for the Osaka area.

Under Japanese law, the prime minister can declare a state of emergency, which gives local authorities the legal basis to ask residents and businesses to restrict movements and work.

Suga has been criticised for what many have called a slow, confusing and piecemeal response to the pandemic as infections hover near record highs.

About 79% of respondents in a Kyodo survey published on Sunday said his decision to declare the emergency for Tokyo came too late.

Daily virus cases hit a record 7,882 last Friday, for a tally of nearly 300,000, public broadcaster NHK said.

In a bid to help the struggling services sector, the government had offered generous subsidies to encourage citizens to travel domestically and dine out, only to pause the effort late last year as virus cases soared.

Now, it is asking residents of the Tokyo area to stay indoors as much as possible and urging bars and restaurants to close by 8 p.m.

“Please refrain from going out, not only at night, but also during the day,” Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said on Twitter, adding that daytime outings over the three-day weekend had not fallen, despite the emergency.

Like many nations, Japan is struggling to balance efforts to restrain the virus against damage to its economy, which is the world’s third-largest.

With inbound tourism on hold, the hotel industry has borne the brunt of the pain. Last year, 118 hotels went under, a 1.5-fold rise from 2019 that accounted for about 47% of total bankruptcies, a Tokyo Shoko Research survey showed.

Finance Minister Taro Aso said the government would offer one-off payouts of up to 400,000 yen ($3,835) to businesses supporting restaurants and bars that shorten hours, such as suppliers of disposable chopsticks and wet towels.

Maximum compensation for the restaurants themselves will rise by 50%, Suga has said.

The latest emergency measures would not require already-compiled state budgets to be reshaped, Aso said. (reuters)

(Reuters) - New Zealand will ask international travelers from most countries to show negative COVID-19 test results before boarding flights to the country as new contagious variants of COVID-19 spread across globally.

“Given the high rates of infection in many countries and evidence of the global spread of more transmissible variants, it’s clear that most global air routes will be of critical concern for the foreseeable future,” COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said in a statement.

Hipkins said the pre-departure test requirement would soon expand to all countries and territories excluding Australia, Antarctica and some Pacific Island nations.

Travelers would still have to complete the 14-day mandatory quarantine and undergo testing upon arrival in New Zealand.

Border closure and a strict national lockdown during the initial phase of the pandemic has helped New Zealand keep numbers relatively low, with just over 1,800 confirmed cases and 25 deaths since the pandemic began.

The country last reported a local case nearly two months ago.

Critics have said the government has been taking the new COVID-19 variants too lightly and calls have grown for urgently extending pre-departure testing and accelerate the roll out of vaccines.

The government said it had secured enough vaccines to inoculate all of the country’s 5 million people, with agreements signed with pharmaceutical companies AstraZeneca and Novavax.

It plans to inoculate border workers only by the end of March and the general public by mid-year.

“New Zealand has fallen behind the rest of the world with its vaccine programme and the government needs to explain why,” opposition National Party leader Judith Collins said in a statement this week.

“Kiwis are rightly asking why Australia has plans to vaccinate four million people by the end of March while New Zealand won’t start vaccinating the general public until at least July.”

Australia brought forward its vaccine roll-out two weeks to early March.

“When we start is less important than when we finish it,” Hipkins said at a news conference, adding New Zealand’s success in containing gives it time to roll out vaccines. (reuters)