VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Prof. Dr. H. Muladi SH, former justice minister and rector of Diponegoro University (Undip) in Semarang, Central Java, breathed his last on Thursday morning, Undip rector Yos Johan Utama stated.

"The extended family of the Academic Senate and the Professor Council of Diponegoro University lost one of their best professors," Utama noted in a short message.

Prof. Muladi, who died at 6:45 a.m. local time on Thursday, will be buried at the Kalibata Heroes Cemetery in South Jakarta, he remarked.

"May God give strength and patience to the bereaved family," he affirmed.

Born in Surakarta, Central Java, on May 26, 1943, Prof. Muladi was the Undip rector from 1994 to 1998.

He was appointed as justice minister and minister/state secretary during the President Soeharto-Vice President B. J. Habibie government in 1998 and 1999 and Supreme Court justice during the 2000-2001 period.

During the 2005-2011 period, he held the post of governor of the National Resilience Institute (Lemhanas).

Prof. Muladi once underwent treatment at the Army Hospital (RSPAD) in Jakarta before breathing his last. (antaranews)

The Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) is ready to help the government implement the COVID-19 vaccination program in the community, secretary general of the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI), Sudirman Said, stated.

"We express our willingness because PMI has 409 units or headquarters throughout the province to assist with vaccinations," he said during a virtual discussion originating from Jakarta on Wednesday.

Some time ago, he said, Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment, Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, had visited PMI headquarters to ask whether it was willing to help vaccinate citizens once the COVID-19 vaccine was ready to be officially given to the public.

Pandjaitan is also the deputy chair of the Committee for Handling COVID-19 and National Economic Recovery (KPC-PEN).

Regarding the distribution channel, he said that so far, the PMI has good relations with various transportation companies so that it will make things easier in the field.

This has been proven by PMI, especially when organizing various logistics for areas affected by natural disasters, including distribution amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We will use the network we have, but it depends on the assignment of the government because its (the vaccine program’s) authority (rests) with the government, and PMI will only help the government," Said remarked.

Not only that, the organization, which is commanded by Jusuf Kalla, also has 224 blood donation units (UDD) spread across all regions that have technical personnel and experts who can carry out vaccinations, he added.

It is necessary to know, he continued, that logistics delivery will be a challenge considering Indonesia's vast territory and different geographical conditions.

Moreover, the vaccine would need to be always carried at a certain temperature, including the equipment, he said.

"This is indeed a challenge, but we must make it a lesson so that in the end we have new skills to handle it," he added.

The Indonesian government would carry out the COVID-19 vaccination program in two phases, Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said earlier.

The first phase will last from January to April, 2021, and the second from April, 2021 to March, 2022, he said adding, health workers, public service workers, and the elderly will be prioritized in the first phase of the program.

"The first stage of vaccination for health workers in Indonesia is [going to cover] 1.3 million people. The second stage is given to about 17.4 million public officers, then 22.5 million elderly people over 60 years," Sadikin said.

The priority status for frontline health workers is in line with what is being done in other countries, he added.

Furthermore, in the second phase of the program, vaccinations will be provided to 63.9 million vulnerable people in areas with a high risk of transmission and 77.4 million persons from other communities, using a cluster approach, depending on the availability of vaccines, the minister informed.

Sadikin said the government consulted the Indonesian Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (ITAGI), an independent agency, while mapping out the vaccination plan. The agency was tasked with providing recommendations to the Ministry of Health. (antaranews)

The Indonesian government, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is continuing to communicate with other countries to exchange scientific data related to the COVID-19 vaccine, according to Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi.

“Diplomacy is also moving to facilitate the exchange of scientific data required for granting permits for emergency use,” Marsudi said at an online press conference after signing agreements to purchase 100 million doses of AstraZeneca and Novavax vaccines on Wednesday.

Reiterating President Joko Widodo’s message regarding the application of precautions at each stage of the COVID-19 vaccination process, Retno said that scientific data is "very important and cannot be negotiated”.

Retno added that for this matter, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs facilitated a virtual meeting between the Indonesian team and the Turkish team on December 27, 2020, and has continued to communicate with Brazil regarding the same matter.

Early in December this year, Indonesia received 1.2 million doses of the vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac Biotech, and another 1.8 million doses of the vaccine are expected by Thursday (December 31, 2020), which will bring the total number of doses to three million.

Currently, the clinical trial of the Sinovac vaccine is still on in Bandung, West Java. Three months of interim data on the effectiveness of the vaccine will be received by the relevant authorities "at the beginning of the first week of January, 2021", head of the Food and Drug Supervisory Agency (BPOM), Penny Kusumastuti Lukito, has said.

Meanwhile, based on the results of their clinical trials, Turkey and Brazil recently announced they had found the Sinovac vaccine effective.

According to the interim data for Phase III clinical trials in Turkey, released on December 24, 2020, the Sinovac vaccine has been found 91.25 percent effective against the coronavirus. The country's scientists also said volunteers did not show any significant side-effects during the trial period.

Meanwhile on December 23, 2020, Brazilian scientists carrying out the final phase of clinical trials said the Sinovac vaccine has an effectiveness of more than 50 percent - but the full results are still being held from being released, at the request of the company. (antaranews)

The number of COVID-19 cases in Indonesia during the period from November to December 2020 rose drastically, including active cases that jumped by 55 percent in a single month, according to the Task Force for COVID-19 Response.

"Indeed, from March to December, if you look at the monthly graph, it has continued to increase," Dr Dewi Nur Aisyah, head of the Task Force's Data and Information Technology Division, stated during a discussion here on Wednesday.

The country also recorded a significant increase during August and September 2020, from an additional 66,360 cases in August 2020 to 112,255 cases in September 2020, up by 45,895 cases, or 69.2 percent, as a result of the long holidays.

A similar pattern occurred in November-December 2020. The number of additional cases touched 128,850 in November 2020 and swelled to 188,248 cases in December, an increase by 59,398 cases in a single month.

"We have not discussed the impact of the New Year's eve," she remarked.

Furthermore, an increase was recorded in the number of active cases or patients still undergoing treatment and independent isolation during recent weeks.

The number of active cases has increased significantly in the last six weeks, specifically a 55-percent spike in December as compared to November.

A total of 71,658 active cases were reported at the end of November, from 108,452 cases in the fourth week of December.

"If we compare cases during the last week of November with those in the corresponding period of December, a 55-percent increase in the number of active cases was recorded," he remarked.

A similar situation was observed with regard to the monthly national death toll wherein a significant increase was registered during the August-September and November-December 2020 period. During the August-September period, an increase of 46 percent was recorded, from 2,283 deaths in August to 3,334 deaths in September.

During the November-December 2020 period, the figure was up by 42.7 percent, from 3,081 deaths in November to 4,397 deaths in December 2020.

Aisyah cautioned that the continuous significant rise posed a grave risk owing to the limited capacity of healthcare workers, hospital beds, and ICU facilities.

As many as 21,944 people had died in Indonesia from the coronavirus in total as of Wednesday, out of some 735,124 cases. (Antaranews)