VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Hundreds of passengers on a Royal Caribbean ‘cruise-to-nowhere’ from Singapore were told to stay in their cabins until contact tracing was complete after a COVID-19 case was detected, forcing the Quantum of the Seas ship back to port, authorities said.

Royal Caribbean and the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) said all guests and crew of the Quantum of the Seas who had close contact with the 83-year old infected male guest have subsequently tested negative for the virus.

The remaining passengers and crew will stay onboard in their rooms until contact tracing is complete, Annie Chang, director of the cruise segment at the STB said. They will all undergo mandatory COVID-19 testing before leaving the terminal.

In the meantime, they are being given regular updates and meals are provided directly to their rooms.

“It was defintely not the ending we are looking for,” passenger Rizal Ramli told local broadcaster ChannelNewsAsia from the ship, which docked in Singapore on Wednesday.

“We are just told to wait in our room and they will be giving us further announcements.”

The ‘cruise-to-nowhere’ by Royal Caribbean is one of its first sailings since the company halted global operations in March due to coronavirus. There were with 1,680 guests and 1,148 crew members on board, local newspaper Straits Times reported.

The global cruise industry has taken a major hit from the pandemic, with some of the earliest big outbreaks found on cruise ships. In one case in February off the coast of Japan, passengers were stuck for weeks aboard the Diamond Princess with over 700 guests and crew infected.

Royal Carribbean’s ‘cruise-to-nowhere from Singapore began last week and is open only to Singapore residents, makes no stops and sails just off the city-state. The Quantum of the Seas returned to Singapore at 8 a.m. local time (0000 GMT) on Wednesday, a day before the end of its planned four-day cruise.

The infected passenger had reported to the onboard medical centre with diarrhoea, and underwent a mandatory polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test as part of the onboard protocols. The passenger had taken a mandatory COVID-19 PCR test prior to boarding, and was tested negative, the STB said

The cruises are a part of Singapore’s plans to revive its tourism industry that has been battered due to the novel coronavirus, which has infected more than 67.7 million people globally and killed 1,548,575.

Singapore, which has had just over 58,000 cases and 29 deaths, has been reporting less than a handful of local infections in recent weeks.

The case on board is another setback for Singapore after a plan to open a quarantine-free air travel bubble with Hong Kong last month was postponed at the eleventh hour.

Part of the precautions for the resumption of cruises in Singapore involves pre-departure testing and for guests to carry an electronic contact tracing device and to social distance at all times.

The infected case’s close contacts will be placed in quarantine or health surveillance, the Straits Times newspaper reported citing an advisory from the health ministry.

Others will need to monitor their health, while continuing regular activities including going to school or work, and undergo a swab test at the end of a 14-day monitoring period. (Reuters)

Indonesians streamed into polling stations to vote in regional elections on Wednesday, with health experts warning of the risk of new coronavirus clusters emerging across the archipelago after authorities ignored calls to postpone the vote again.

A mammoth logistical undertaking even without a pandemic, more than 100 million people are eligible to vote with nearly 300,000 polling stations set up in 24 districts and 37 cities.

The vote in the world’s third-biggest democracy comes as Indonesia struggles to contain Southeast Asia’s worst COVID-19 outbreak with more than 586,000 infections and 18,000 deaths.

Voter enthusiasm did not seem to have been significantly dampened in the densely populated city of Depok in West Java.

“Of course we are all worried during this pandemic, but as a good citizen of this country I want to participate in this election,” said resident Rusdiana Jarkasih, as volunteers handed out gloves and checked voters’ temperatures.

In Serang, on the outskirts of Jakarta, media reports said some voters used rubber boats to navigate flooded streets to reach polling stations.

The vote had been pushed back once, but the government ignored calls from health experts and Islamic groups for a second postponement.

Posters from the election commission in the lead up to the polls showed a graphic of staff dressed in hazmat suits collecting votes from hospitalised COVID-19 patients, reminding them they still had a right to vote.

Epidemiologist Pandu Riono warned that with around 100 million Indonesians active at the same time “it’s very likely that new clusters will emerge”.

While some countries in the region including South Korea and Singapore appear to have held elections successfully during the pandemic, Malaysia attributed a new spike in cases to an election in the country’s second-largest state Sabah.

An Indonesian election official said staff would ensure health protocols were followed, with voters encouraged to wear masks and election workers given personal protective equipment.

However, Indonesia’s election supervisory agency has said health protocols were violated more than 2,000 times during the campaign period.

Data from independent data initiative Lapor COVID-19 showed that 76 candidates in the election had contracted COVID-19, while four have died.

Alongside health worries, many relatives of noted politicians are contesting seats this year, raising concerns over a growth in dynastic politics in a country long dominated by old elites.

Compared to regional elections in 2015 when there were 52 dynastic candidates, this year there are 146, including Gibran Rakabuming Raka, President Joko Widodo’s eldest son, who is expected to win the race for mayor in the Javanese city of Surakarta, a position once held by his father. (Reuters)

Indonesia's current account posted a decade-high growth in the third quarter of 2020 with trade surplus reaching US$964 million, or 0.36 percent of the gross domestic product, Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs said.

"Trade surplus contributed to Indonesia's current account for the first time ever in the past decade," Minister Airlangga Hartarto said at an online discussion here on Tuesday.

The positive support of capital and financial transactions in the third quarter of 2020 also led to the country's balance of payments recording a surplus of US$2.1 billion, he informed.

This indicates that the resilience of Indonesia's external sector remains strong despite pandemic pressure, thereby raising optimism about the prospects for the national economy, he pointed out.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Indonesian economy reached the lowest point in the second quarter of this year, when the domestic economy contracted 5.32 percent. Growth began to improve from the third quarter, when it was recorded at minus 3.49 percent.

“In the third quarter, we passed [returned back from] the lowest point or rock bottom, wherein the economy contracted 3.49 percent compared to the second quarter, when it contracted 5.32 percent. This is the momentum of economic recovery that we must maintain," he noted.

The momentum of economic recovery must be maintained along with the government's efforts to implement a balanced push-and-pull strategy for handling COVID-19, he added.

The application of a balanced push-and-pull strategy to the health and economic sectors will raise public optimism about the national economy, in line with the availability of COVID-19 vaccines, he remarked.

“We are waiting for emergency-use authorization (for COVID-19 vaccines) from BPOM (the Drug and Food Supervisory Agency) and this will be the government's priority. We hope that the game-changer vaccines will be able to improve public trust,” he added. (Antaranews)

 The 1.2 million vaccines recently procured by the government will be prioritized for groups that are most at risk of contracting COVID-19, especially medical personnel, said Dr. Masdalina Pane from the Indonesian Epidemiologists Association (PAEI).

“So, what we need to know is that the vaccine for now is a vaccine for emergency conditions, not for normal conditions," Pane, M.Si, who is head of professional development at PAEI, said at a press conference for the Task Force for Handling COVID-19 at Graha BNPB in Jakarta on Tuesday.

She said the Indonesian government has imported 1.2 million doses of Sinovac’s COVID-19 vaccine. However, the current stock of the vaccines is not sufficient for them to be administered to all Indonesian people, she pointed out.

Therefore, the vaccines will be prioritized for the groups of people who are most at risk of infection, and particularly medical personnel, she explained.

“So, the vaccine is not to be given to the whole community. But, it is to be given to groups at risk. The first (group) is, of course, the one with a higher risk, (and that) is health workers, because they are in constant contact with those who are confirmed (COVID-19 patients) or unknown, but have symptoms (of the virus). Suspect (cases), we call them,” she said.

The next group that would get priority in vaccination will be people who provide services to the community, and then people with high mobility, she informed.

"So this (the vaccine) is not for all people. Because this is an emergency condition, the government's priority is to (inoculate) those who are at risk," Masdalina said.

She then appealed to the public to remain disciplined in implementing the 3M protocols, namely wearing masks, washing hands with soap, maintaining distance and avoiding crowds, to prevent transmission of COVID-19.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19, is not expected to disappear any time soon. Therefore, by applying the 3M protocol, communities would be able to carry out activities, while continuing to live with COVID-19, Masdalina said. (Antaranews)