VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

BioNTech Chief Executive Ugur Sahin said on Monday he was confident a COVID-19 vaccine co-developed by his company would be effective against a variant of the coronavirus that has emerged in Britain.

He said on Bild TV that the German company would investigate the mutation in the coming days but that he viewed the matter with “with a degree of soberness”.

Countries across the globe shut their borders to Britain on Monday due to fears about a highly infectious new coronavirus strain, causing travel chaos and raising the prospect of food shortages in the United Kingdom.

Sahin was speaking shortly after the European Union cleared regulatory hurdles for the vaccine, co-developed with Pfizer, to be rolled out after Christmas.

The note of calm from the CEO about the UK mutation echoed the World Health Organization, which cautioned against major alarm, saying this was a normal part of a pandemic’s evolution.

Sahin said he hadn’t yet been immunized but would like to be. He said it was more important that his employees get the vaccine so they can continue to do their jobs. (reuters)

BioNTech Chief Executive Ugur Sahin said on Monday he was confident a COVID-19 vaccine co-developed by his company would be effective against a variant of the coronavirus that has emerged in Britain.

He said on Bild TV that the German company would investigate the mutation in the coming days but that he viewed the matter with “with a degree of soberness”.

Countries across the globe shut their borders to Britain on Monday due to fears about a highly infectious new coronavirus strain, causing travel chaos and raising the prospect of food shortages in the United Kingdom.

Sahin was speaking shortly after the European Union cleared regulatory hurdles for the vaccine, co-developed with Pfizer, to be rolled out after Christmas.

The note of calm from the CEO about the UK mutation echoed the World Health Organization, which cautioned against major alarm, saying this was a normal part of a pandemic’s evolution.

Sahin said he hadn’t yet been immunized but would like to be. He said it was more important that his employees get the vaccine so they can continue to do their jobs.

President of the Republic of Indonesia Joko Widodo said that the government will continue a number of policies that have been implemented in 2020 in 2021.

The Head of State conveyed this in his virtual remarks at the National Dialogue Out event, which was witnessed through the Presidential Secretariat YouTube in Jakarta, Tuesday.

"In 2021, of course, we will continue to carry out good policies in 2020, we will continue," said the President.

The President said the policies that would be continued were mainly in the health sector, for handling COVID-19, and also providing social protection assistance for the people.

"And most importantly, the government will immediately provide free vaccines to all the people and it will start in early 2021," the President explained.

The President said that they expect the vaccination program to raise public confidence in handling COVID-19, as well as create a sense of security in the community.

"So that the recovery is expected to run faster, consumption will rise and return to normal," he explained.

The President also estimates that investment will increase due to the Job Creation Law. According to him, national exports begin its recovery, and this trend is expected to continue and increase in 2021.

"Moreover we also get GSP, Generalized System Preferences from The US will certainly boost our export performance, "said the President. (antaranews)

Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati again revised the projection for Indonesia's overall economic growth in 2020 to stay in a negative range, though the contraction is deeper, specifically minus 2.2 to minus 1.7 percent.

"Indeed, this is slightly better than the average ASEAN or emerging market countries, but we are still vigilant," the minister stated during a virtual press conference on the realization of the State Budget as per November 2020 here on Monday.

Earlier, the finance minister had estimated Indonesia's economic growth this year to lie in the range of minus 1.7 to minus 0.6 percent.

In total, the government made four revisions in 2020: minus 0.4 to 2.3 percent in May-April, then 0.4 percent to 1.0 percent in May-June, minus 1.7 to minus 0.6 percent in September-October, and minus 2.2 to minus 1.7 percent in December.

The finance minister explained that high uncertainty arising from the COVID-19 pandemic had led to Indonesia's economic growth projections by various institutions undergo several revisions.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) also made four revisions on the economic growth forecast, with the latest projection of minus 2.2 percent, while the IMF conducted revisions thrice, with the latest projection of minus 1.5 percent.

The World Bank had also revised the economic growth projections four times, with a forecast of minus 2.2 percent, while the OECD also revised the projection four times, with a forecast of minus 2.4 percent.

In the 2020 outlook, only government consumption is expected to grow positively, at 0.3 percent, while other indicators, such as household consumption, recorded a negative growth of 2.7 to 2.4 percent.

Investment is projected to grow negatively in the range of 4.5 to 4.4 percent, exports contracted by 6.2 percent to 5.7 percent, and imports are also projected to grow negatively in the range of 15 percent to 14.3 percent.

Meanwhile, for the fourth quarter of 2020, the finance minister projects economic growth to lie in the range of minus 2.9 to minus 0.9 percent. (antaranews)

Australia said on Monday it had detected cases of the new virulent coronavirus strain identified in the United Kingdom, while Hong Kong said it would suspend Britain flights.
Two travelers from the United Kingdom to Australia’s New South Wales state were found carrying the mutated variant of the virus that Britain has said could be up to 70% more infectious. Both are in quarantine, and the recent spike in infections in Sydney are not linked to this, authorities said.

The new strain has prompted Britain’s European neighbours and several others including Canada and Iran to close their doors to travellers from the country.

Much is unknown about the strain, but experts said current vaccines should still be effective against it.

Asian nations including Japan and South Korea said they were monitoring the new strain even as they battle a spike in infections at home.

Hong Kong became the first city in the region to ban flights from Britain in a bid to curb already rising case numbers in the dense financial hub.

The Chinese special administrative region said on Monday that people arriving from Britain before Dec. 22 would have to quarantine for three weeks instead of two.

South Korea, which imposes a 14-day quarantine on everyone entering the country, said it was reviewing new measures for flights from Britain, and would test twice those coming in from there before they were released from quarantine.

New cases climbed to over 1,000 a day in South Korea several times last week. It reported on Sunday an outbreak in a Seoul prison where 188 inmates and staff were infected. (reuters)